A flight from Iran is expected to land in India on Friday night with blood samples of 300 Indians, who are among the thousands stranded in the coronavirus-hit country, and on its way out will take back Iranian nationals.
The ferry flight cleared by India’s aviation regulator Directorate General of Civil Aviation or DGCA will land within 24 hours in Delhi.
Samples of Indians would be tested for coronavirus and the stranded passengers would be brought from the Islamic country only if found negative.
There are about 2000 Indians mostly from Kashmir’s Kargil area there. They had gone to visit a religious shrine in Iran but were stranded after regular commercial flights were suspended between the two countries following the spread of the deadly coronavirus.
Iran has emerged as an epicentre for the disease in the Middle East, has reported 107 deaths from the virus, putting it on a par with Italy as the country with the highest death toll outside China where the virus emerged late in December last year.
Authorities are in touch with their Iranian counterparts to launch operations for bringing the Indians back, civil aviation minister Hardeep Singh Puri said on Friday.
Almost 2000 Iranians are currently in India and would be flown back to their country on the ferry flights.
A team of Indian doctors has already been sent to Iran for ensuring that stranded citizens there are thoroughly examined before boarding the evacuation flight.
Iran has said it would keep schools and universities closed until early April. It has already suspended major cultural and sporting events and reduced working hours across the country.
The Islamic republic also reported 591 additional confirmed cases of the COVID-19 illness, bringing the total to 3513 infected.
