New Delhi: A ferry flight from Tehran, carrying around 300 swabs of Indians suspected of having the coronavirus infection, is set to land in the national capital on Saturday.
The flight, to be operated by Iran’s Mahan Air, would not have any passengers. Iranians in India would be taken back in the return flight.
Reports say the government is in discussions with Iranian authorities over bringing back the nearly 2,000 Indians who are at present in Iran, one of the countries most severely affected by the coronavirus.
Stranded passengers would be brought from Iran only if found negative, Hindustan Times has reported. The paper also wrote that most of the Indians in Iran are from Kashmir’s Kargil area.
India has extended a flying ban to Iran in the wake of the coronavirus spread.
Civil aviation secretary Pradeep Singh Kharola on Friday said the first flight from Iran would only be carrying the swabs.
“We are monitoring the situation on a daily basis, hourly basis… it will be a ferry flight coming with swabs,” Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri said at a press conference here.
The Iranian embassy, in a press release, expressed delight that the first flight with the swabs of stranded Indian citizens will leave Tehran international airport “hopefully early morning on March 7, 2020 to New Delhi and in return, it will bring back Iranian nationals to their homeland”.
Further, the embassy said that Iranian authorities are also considering the following measures:
- More and adequate flights to New Delhi and Mumbai to ensure return of all stranded nationals of both countries;
- Transferring Indian citizens with no symptoms of coronavirus to India and hospitalising those whose medical test results turn out to be positive in one of the advanced special medical centres designated by the Iranian Ministry of Health.
- For both countries to continue their close contacts to ensure finding necessary remedies to alleviate the sufferings of all the stranded nationals including tourists, students and businessmen in the current critical situation which requires globally coordinated actions.
Also read: Coronavirus Updates, March 6: Delhi Man Tests Positive, Taking Number of Cases in India to 31
The Week quoted Puri as having said that the government has screened nearly 6.5 lakh people at Indian airports and detected 84 suspected cases of the deadly coronavirus, all of which have been sent for testing.
As the government looks at another initiative to bring back Indians in coronavirus-hit countries, Kharola said while Indians come here, it should be made sure that they are in a healthy condition.
The health ministry is planning to set up advanced testing facilities in Iran itself. Before they board the flight, a test can be done for these passengers, he added.
A team of medical experts has reached Iran and it would be setting up a basic medical testing facility there.
“Another option is that we are trying to collect the samples, swabs…on the first flight that comes to India, these swabs will be brought. They will be tested in India and within a day…the results will be known,” Kharola noted.
Iran embassy said that it has promptly granted visas to six experts from the Indian Council of Medical Research and Ministry of Health.
Aviation regulator DGCA’s chief Arun Kumar said 300 swabs are expected to be come in the Mahan Air flight. Based on the outcome of the tests, those passengers who test negative would be allowed to come to the country later, he added.
Many of the Indians currently in Iran are pilgrims, he said.
Last month, India suspended flights from Iran in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak. Iranian carriers were operating three flights a week to both Delhi and Mumbai.
“We will allow temporarily Iran to bring in their flights and when they go back, they will be evacuating their people stranded here (India),” Kharola said.
The government has already evacuated hundreds of Indians from Wuhan, the epicentre of the coronavirus outbreak, as well as many who onboard on a coronavirus-hit cruise ship docked off Yokohama in Japan.
(With PTI inputs)