New Delhi: A group of 142 Indian nationals will be evacuated from coronavirus-hit Iran on March 28 and they will be quarantined at Indian Army Wellness Facility in Jodhpur of Rajasthan.
This would be the sixth batch of Indians evacuated from Iran -- a Middle Eastern country which is among the worst affected countries with most cases and fatalities from coronavirus outside of Italy, Spain and China.
With this, a total of 808 Indian nationals have been evacuated from Iran so far.
The private airline carrier SpiceJet will operate a special flight between Delhi and Jodhpur on March 29 to facilitate transportation of the evacuees to a quarantine facility in the city.
The special flight will be operated as per Government of India’s request and the airline will deploy its Boeing 737 aircraft for the assignment. The flight will take off at IST 01:40 hrs from Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International airport and land at Jodhpur airport at 02:55 hrs on March 29, the private carrier said in a statement.
SpiceJet Chairman and Managing Director Ajay Singh said, “These are challenging times when mankind is facing an unprecedented crisis across the globe. SpiceJet is proud to operate this special flight to help our Government and our fellow citizens in a small way in this joint fight against coronavirus.”
“We, at SpiceJet, stand committed to provide our services on each and every occasion of such national crisis and it will be our honour to assist in whatever way possible,” Mr Singh added.
Iran is one of the worst hit by this global pandemic as it reported over 28,000 cases, while over 2000 people have died of the infection in the country.
India count climbed to 673 positive cases of coronavirus while the death toll reached at 15.
Over 21,000 people have died of coronavirus infections across the world with over 7500 deaths being recorded in Italy alone.
