Srinagar, April 9 (GNS): Over a thousand Indian citizens were evacuated by the army from Iran, one of the worst-hit countries by coronavirus, recently.
The evacuation was done in five batches and all of them were brought to the Army Wellness Facility Centres at Jaisalmer and Jodhpur in Rajasthan.
Soon after their arrival, 1036 Indians were quarantined for 14 days as per Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) protocol at the two quarantine centres of Jaisalmer and Jodhpur which were created by vacating living barracks of the troops at these Wellness Facility Centres. As per ICMR directive, the quarantine period of batch one and three have been extended by another 14 days, a Defence Ministry spokesman said.
On completion of the quarantine period, the spokesman said, the evacuees were tested for the first time in India at AIIMS, Jodhpur, wherein out of the 236 evacuees of the first batch, 15 asymptomatic persons tested positive from March 28 onwards. They were shifted to AlIMS, Jodhpur.
On March 29, the spokesman said, the complete second batch of 53 students tested negative and efforts are underway to ensure their earliest return home. In the third batch of 195 evacuees, he said, only two persons have tested positive till date.
Regarding Jodhpur facility, he said, proactive testing by the Army in the initial days itself led to the identification of 19 positive cases out of the total 552 evacuees. These cases have been isolated at AIIMS and MDM hospitals, respectively, in Jodhpur, while the remaining persons are undergoing quarantine at the Army facility, the spokesman said.
The Army’s diligent and systematic efforts have at least ensured that the asymptomatic evacuees, who later tested positive, were prevented from becoming vehicles of contamination to other parts of the nation.
As per ICMR directive, the spokesman said, the quarantine period of batch one and three have been extended by another 14 days and even smaller clusters of 25-50 people have been made to further reduce the chances of community spread and ensure their early return home. (GNS)