Air India flies back 324 Indians, 6 stopped in Wuhan

Air India's jumbo aircraft carrying 324 Indians from the novel coronavirus-hit Wuhan in China, landed India on Saturday morning.

The Boeing 747 Jumbo aircraft had taken off from Wuhan's Tianhe International Airport in the early hours and landed at the Indira Gandhi International Airport in Delhi at 7:26 am, reports NDTV.

The passengers are mostly students who have been bringing back from Wuhan.

The returnees will be kept in isolation for 14 days at the ITBP centre in Chhawla in the national capital.

Chinese authorities did not allow six Indians on board after they reported high temperatures during screening. "Six passengers were offloaded as they had high temperatures," quoting other passengers NDTV reported.

A screening camp has been set up at the Delhi Airport where they will be screened before they are put under quarantine.

All the passengers will go through necessary screening and following that will be put under observation. Ministry of External Affairs, Health Ministry and the Army will make arrangements for the passengers.

The Union Health Ministry had said on Friday that the government has made adequate quarantine camps at Manesar ((managed by Armed Forces Medical Services) and at Chhawla (managed by ITBP).

Air India jumbo plane - with a team of doctors, and all necessary resources like masks, medical equipment, packed food, prescribed medicines -had departed from Delhi on Friday.

According to the Indian Embassy in Beijing, there will be another flight to evacuate the remaining Indian nationals.

India bans export of protective masks, clothing

India on Friday banned the export of personal protection equipment such as masks and clothing amid a global coronavirus outbreak, Reuters reported.

It did not give a reason for the ban but it reported its first case of the new coronavirus on Thursday, a woman in the southern state of Kerala who was a student of Wuhan University in China.

The central Chinese city of Wuhan is the epicentre of the outbreak, and the virus has since spread to more than 9,800 people globally and killed 213 people in China.

Several Indian citizens living in Wuhan will arrive in India by plane on Saturday and be taken to a quarantine centre on the outskirts of the capital New Delhi.

India, the world's second most heavily populated country after China, has taken measures to ensure that all people arriving from China report to health authorities.