Coronavirus: Army, ITBP set up quarantine facilities

The Indian Army has set up a quarantine facility in Manesar near Delhi to keep around 300 Indian students being evacuated from China's Hubei province in view of the outbreak of coronavirus.

Officials said the Indian Army has created the facility near Manesar where the students can be monitored for any signs of infection for a duration of two weeks by a qualified team of doctors and staff members.

An Air India flight was sent to Wuhan on Friday to bring back the Indian students stuck in Hubei province, the epicentre of coronavirus.

The flight is expected to reach India at around 2 am on Saturday.

The procedure of screening and quarantine will comprise two steps. The first one will be at the Indira Gandhi International airport followed by quarantine at Manesar, an official said.

"If any individual is suspected to be infected, he/she will be shifted to the isolation ward at Base Hospital Delhi Cantonment," he said.

Border guarding force Indo-Tibetan Border Police has prepared a 600-bedded facility in Delhi to quarantine and provide basic medical care to those suspected to have been affected by coronavirus, a senior official said on Friday.

The facility is operational in an ITBP camp in south-west Delhi's Chhawla area, its spokesperson Vivek Kumar Pandey said.

A team of doctors will be present at the facility, which has about 600 beds and has been prepared in the wake of the cornovirus outbreak, he said.

Special arrangements have been made to host children and women at this quarantined facility, Pandey said.

Those kept at the centre will be provided with food, water and other basic amenities.

The about 90,000 personnel strong force is primarily tasked to guard the 3,488-km Line of Actual Control with China under the command of the Union home ministry.