New Delhi: Sixth batch of 275 Indian nationals mostly pilgrims and students have been evacuated from coronavirus-hit Iran on Sunday to Delhi.
The evacuees who are pilgrims from Ladakh and Kashmir and students will be quarantined at Indian Army Wellness Facility in Jodhpur of Rajasthan.
“The Army has activated a second centre in Jodhpur,” Gandhinagar-based Defence PRO Wing Commander Puneet Chadha said.
This is 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 the US, Italy, Spain and China.
With this, a total of 941 Indian nationals have been evacuated from Iran so far.
The private airline carrier SpiceJet has been pressed in to operate a special flight between Delhi and Jodhpur on Sunday to facilitate transportation of the evacuees to a quarantine facility in the city.
Few days back, SpiceJet Chairman and Managing Director Ajay Singh has 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 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 had added.
Iran is one of the worst hit by this global pandemic as it reported on Saturday that 139 more people had died from the Coronavirus, raising the official death toll to 2,517.
Iranian Health Ministry spokesman Kianoush Jahanpour told a news conference that 3,076 more cases had been confirmed in the past 24 hours, bringing the total number of infections to 35,408.
India count climbed to 909 positive cases of coronavirus while the death toll reached at 19.
