Air India special flight to evacuate Indian citizens from China amid Coronavirus outbreak

In the wake of the Coronavirus outbreak which has been termed an international health emergency by the World Health Organization (WHO), an Air India special B747 flight will depart at 12.30 pm on Friday from Delhi to Wuhan city in China's Hubei province for the evacuation of Indians. The 423-seater jumbo flight to China which is coming from Mumbai to Delhi is said to carry 16 crew members are said to be on board for the evacution process. 

The government had contacted over 600 Indians living in China's Hubei province to determine their readiness to return to India. The Indian government has been constantly in touch with the Chinese authorities and is awaiting official confirmation from China.

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The evacuation effort is scheduled a day after India registered its first positive case of Coronavirus in Kerala. The patient who is a student studying at Wuhan University had returned from China after the outbreak and has tested positive. She is now kept in isolation at General Hospital in Thrissur and is said to be in a stable condition. Wuhan city of the Hubei Province is said to be the epicenter of the virus.

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The death toll due to the novel Coronavirus in China is increasing as days pass by. China's national authorities announced on Friday that the virus has claimed 213 lives with the number of confirmed cases totalling to 9,692.

The new figures came shortly after the World Health Organization (WHO) declared a global emergency over the deadly epidemic, which has spread to over 20 countries around the world. The latest figures show that the daily death count is increasing sharply, despite unprecedented measures imposed by China on Hubei a week ago.

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WHO declares Global Health Emergency

The WHO had initially played down the threat posed by Coronavirus, but later revised its risk assessment after crisis talks on Thursday.

"We must all act together now to limit further spread... We can only stop it together," WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said while briefing in Geneva.

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Although Tedros said that imposing restrictions on travel and trade restrictions with China were futile in efforts to stem the spread of Coronavirus which has now affected several countries around the world.