By Amresh Srivastava
New Delhi, Feb 21 (UNI) The make shift quarantine facility created by the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) at its Chhawla facility here is getting ready for the second lot of Indian evacuees from the epicenter of deadly Novel Corona Virus Wuhan in China.
“The ITBP Quarantine facility at Chhawla camp is again ready to house another batch of over 100 people who are expected to reach the Capital on Saturday”, ITBP spokesperson Vivek Pandey told UNI.
These people will be taken from Wuhan in China on the return journey of the special plane which left here on Friday afternoon for Wuhan.
“All pre-requirements of the ITBP centre have been completed. After first screening at the isolation bay at the Airport, these fresh arrivals will be taken to the Chhawla camp in the ITBP buses”, Mr Pandey said.
All of them will be given all basic facilities required at the Centre as done with the previous lot of evacuees. Daily monitoring and checkups will also be undertaken by the ITBP medicos, he added.
The Indian Air Force (IAF)’s largest transport aircraft, C-17 Globemaster has flown to Wuhan on Friday with medical supplies to aid China’s fight against the Covid-19 outbreak,which has killed 2239 people and infected more than 75,500 so far.
On its way back, the aircraft is expected to evacuate around 100 Indians from Wuhan and the rest of Hubei province.
The ITBP quarantine centre had successfully managed the first batch of 406 people, including seven Maldivian nationals, evacuated from Wuhan on February 1 and 2 by an Air India special aircraft. They were allowed to leave after they tested negative.
After evaluating the impact on Indians living in China and World Health Organisation (WHO) alert for this epidemic as global health warning, the Centre had directed to create such quarantine centers in Delhi and all major cities.
In Delhi, ITBP, the border guarding force on the China border, created a makeshift quarantine facility in just 48 hours at one of its building located in Chhawla with all necessary facilities like comfortable stay, food, indoor games and Wi-Fi for the people put up there.
A medical team of 30 doctors and paramedics, headed by the ITBP' s Chief Medical Officer Dr AP Joshi and other experts from All India Institute Medical Sciences (AIIMS) and Safadarjung Hospital had monitored the Indian evacuees for 19 days.
Apart from medical teams, a team of 30 staffs including cooks and other workers have been deputed at the quarantine facility to make all arrangements.
On the successful management of the first batch at Chhawla, the ITBP Director General SS Deswal rewarded the serving personnel including the team of Doctors, support and administrative staff members with highest departmental reward ‘DG Commendation Disc' to 28, three appreciation letters, and cash rewards to 32 personnel.
UNI AKS VT 1713