MEA says Iran embassy provided no notification of 'untraceable' 496 tourists in India

The External Affairs Ministry spokesperson, Raveesh Kumar on Thursday announced that the Iran Embassy has not notified about the 'untraceable' 495 Iranian tourists in India. However, he further asserted that there is no need to panic since the tourists had arrived in India before the outbreak of the deadly virus in Iran.

He said, "As per protocol when a foreign national goes missing the embassy concerned is the first to know and then they notify us. We have so far not received any information from the Iranian Embassy." 

Iran Embassy to send special flights to India

The Iran Embassy on Thursday announced that they will fly special flights between India and Iran to rescue the stranded passengers. Further, the Embassy stated that they will send an empty flight to India on Friday to take back the Iranian nationals from India. Along with it, they will send another flight to India to carry all the Indian equipment to Iran. 

Read: Chinese man in Greater Noida locks himself up thinking he has Coronavirus, tests negative

Over 3,000 people infected in Tehran

As per reports, Iran is one of the most affected countries after the Republic of China and Japan. Further, over 2,000 Indians are stranded in Iran. The Health Ministry of Iran has confirmed 15 new deaths from the novel coronavirus on March 4. Iran reportedly said that there are a total of 107 deaths from COVID-19 and 591 new cases have been reported on Wednesday. 

The Tehran authorities said at least 3,513 people have been infected in the country by the deadly coronavirus. Iraj Harirchi, deputy health minister of Iran has also been tested positive for the virus. Due to the outbreak in Iran, several ministries have issued a travel advisory for all the Coronavirus-hit countries. 

Read: Delhi's Mughal Gardens to be closed from March 7 to avoid spread of Coronavirus: President

On March 1, the World Health Organisation's (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said that Tehran would get all the help it needs to fight the deadly virus. He even stressed that there should be global coordination on the issues and pointed out that 'together we can defend this'. The Iranian government has reportedly been ineffective in controlling the crisis as the virus has spread to its highest level of emergency within the country. 

Read: UNHRC intervention on CAA: MEA asserts sovereign right, makes locus standi argument

Coronavirus outbreak

According to the latest reports, over 50 new deaths in China due to coronavirus infections have been confirmed, taking the total death toll to over 3,000. While most of the cases are from Hubei province of China and the city of Wuhan (the epicentre of the outbreak), other countries including Iran, Italy, Japan and the Philippines have also reported deaths related to novel coronavirus.

First detected in the city of Wuhan, in Hubei Province of China, the virus outbreak has now spread to several countries since December 2019. The World Health Organisation (WHO) has dubbed the virus as COVID-19. 

Read: Ghaziabad man with travel history to Iran tests positive for novel coronavirus; total cases rise to 30

(With ANI Inputs)

MEA