No Covid symptoms in 58 evacuees from Iran, so far

Tribune News Service
New Delhi, March 11

The 58 evacuees from Iran, who arrived on board an Indian Air Force flight, are “asymptomatic” at present, said the government. “Asymptomatic” means they have, so far, presented no symptoms associated with Covid-19 virus.

The evacuees have been put in a medical facility in a section of the base that is spread across 55 sq km.

The Iran evacuees include 25 men, 31 women and two children. The IAF plane also brought 108 samples from Iran which are being tested at an AIIMS laboratory. Six scientists from the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) have been stationed in Iran. Equipment and reagents have also been dispatched to enable them to setup a laboratory there.

Meanwhile, the Army has been tasked to create five additional quarantine centres, each with a capacity of 200-250 beds, at Jaisalmer, Suratgarh, Secunderabad, Chennai and Kolkata.

Each of the 112 military hospitals have been asked to establish isolation facilities. The service hospitals will work in synergy with local civil medical authorities and the Indian Council of Medical Research laboratories.

This is the part of the Central Government’s direction to the armed forces to create 2,500 quarantine beds to cater to infected individuals, if the number spirals. While the Army will create more than half of them, the remaining will be the responsibility of the Air Force and the Navy.

The Army currently operates a 300-bed quarantine unit at Manesar, where 83 individuals who arrived from Italy on an Air India flight on Wednesday have been quarantined. Seventy-four of them are Indian nationals while nine are foreigners of Indian origin (six Italians and three United States’ nationals).

The evacuees will be monitored for two weeks by a qualified team of doctors and staff members. If any individual is suspected to be infected, he or she will be shifted to an isolation facility, Army officials say.