India has evacuated some foreigners including 23 Bangladeshis from the new coronavirus epicenter Wuhan, in a rare gesture, while bringing back their own citizens. They landed in Delhi on Thursday and along with other Indian nationals were being quarantined in special facilities in the suburbs of New Delhi, the Indian government said in a statement. The expected quarantine period is 14 days plus starting from Thursday.
The new coronavius, which is later renamed as COVID-19, was first detected in the Chinese city Wuhan. Later it spread to other continents. The World Health Organisation declared it as a global public health emergency. Bangladesh does not have the virus yet. Bangladesh earlier evacuated 312 citizens who wanted to come back from Wuhan through a special aircraft.
India’s Thursday evacuation of their citizens was the 3rd batch. In the first batch of 406 people were taken back from Wuhan on February 1 and 2. They were quarantined and later released after tested negative from the ITBP Quarantine facility at Chhawla Camp, New Delhi. The place is again housing another batch of 112 people from Thursday including those Bangladeshis.
India earlier helped Bangladeshis returned home from any crisis situation as New Delhi maintains ‘as a friend and neighbor, India is always ready to stand with Bangladesh at times of challenge. In 2015, India evacuated 272 Bangladeshis from strife-torn Yemen through ship from the Djibouti, just on the other side of Gulf of Aden.
