New Delhi: All the 263 Indians evacuated from Rome in an Air India national passenger carrier on Sunday morning have been shifted to an Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) quarantine centre here.
Soon after the evacuees landed at the Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGIA) from Rome at around 9.15 a.m. and went through a proper medical observation, they were shifted to the ITBP's Chhawla quarantine facility in west Delhi.
Of the 263, 208 are male while 55 female and most of them are students aged between 25 and 30 years.
The evacuees were sent to the Chhawla camp in different ITBP buses after they completed the thermal scanning and immigration formalities at the airport, ITBP Spokesperson Vivek Pandey told IANS, adding their preliminary coronavirus test in Italy was found negative.
"All the 263 evacuees will be kept for a minimum of 14 days at the ITBP quarantine facility under close observation."
With these evacuees, the total number of occupants currently being facilitated at the ITBP camp is 478. A batch of 215 evacuees from Milan in Italy are still there in the ITBP's Chhawla camp. They are part of those 218 who were shifted to the camp on March 15 after their evacuation from Milan. Two of them have been shifted to the Safdarjung hospital after they were found positive symptoms of coronavirus while one has been allowed to go home as he was found negative. Others are also tested negative.
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This is the fifth batch of evacuees which has been shifted to the ITBP centre in Chhawla so far.
Accordingly, Air India had sent a Boeing 777 aircraft to Rome-Fiumicino International Airport in Italy on Saturday to bring back stranded Indians amid the coronavirus (Covid-19) outbreak which has claimed the lives of over 10,000 people across the globe.
As per a senior Air India official, the flight was operated on a Boeing 777 extended-range (ER) aircraft.
Last week, Air India had sent an aircraft to Milan to bring back over 230 Indian stranded there. The airline has already suspended operations on Delhi-Rome and Delhi-Milan routes till March 28.
As the country observed 'Janata Curfew' and millions across the country decided to stay indoors to help check the spread of the virus, Punjab became the latest state to decide on lockdown till March 31.
Rajasthan government had on Saturday night decided on lockdown to contain the virus
The Odisha government had also on Saturday announced a "near-total" shutdown in five districts of Khurda, Ganjam, Cuttack, Kendrapara and Angul and in towns of Puri, Sambalpur, Jharsuguda, Balasore, Rourkela, Bhadrak, Jajpur Road and Jajpur.
The Union Health Ministry said novel coronavirus cases in India have risen to 324.
However, the ICMR stated that a total of 341 individuals have been confirmed positive among suspected cases and contacts of known positive cases.
A total of 16,999 samples from 16,109 individuals have been tested for SARS-CoV2 as on March 22 10 am, the ICMR said.
The Health Ministry's 324 figure includes 41 foreign nationals and five deaths reported from Delhi, Karnataka, Punjab and Maharashtra (2)so far.
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"The total number of active COVID-19 cases across India stands at 295 so far," the ministry said, adding 24 others have been cured/discharged/migrated while five have died.
In an unprecedented move, the railways on Sunday announced suspension of all its passenger services from March 22 midnight to March 31 midnight and said only goods trains will run during the said period.
The railways had already trimmed down its services on Friday by cancelling a majority of trains. However, it had allowed all trains that had already started the journey to continue.
According to a new order issued by the railways, only goods trains will run from March 22 midnight to March 31 midnight.
In Assam, the second test of a four-and-a-half-year-old girl, who had initially tested positive for coronavirus, has turned out to be negative, state Health Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said on Sunday.
"The 4-year-old child who was suspected of #covid19 and tested in Jorhat Medical College and RMRC, Dibrugarh has been found NEGATIVE. There is no Covid19 positive case in Assam so far," Sarma tweeted, attaching a copy of the report.
Maharashtra has reported the highest number of COVID-19 cases at 63, including three foreigners, followed by Kerala at 52 including seven foreign nationals, according to health ministry data.
Delhi has reported 27 positive cases, which include one foreigner, while Uttar Pradesh has recorded 25 cases, including one foreigner.
Telangana has reported 21 cases, including 11 foreigners. Rajasthan has reported 24 cases, including two foreigners. In Haryana, there are 17 cases, which include 14 foreigners.
Karnataka has 20 coronavirus patients. Punjab and Ladakh have 13 cases each. Gujarat has 14 cases while Tamil Nadu has 6 cases which includes 2 foreigners. Chandigarh has five cases.
Madhya Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir and West Bengal reported four cases each. Andhra Pradesh and Uttarakhand have reported three cases each. Odisha and Himachal Pradesh reported 2 cases each. Puducherry and Chhattisgarh have reported one case each.
(With IANS & PTI inputs)