35 people hailing from Andhra Pradesh, who were evacuated from the coronavirus-hit Chinese city of Wuhan, returned to their state on Tuesday after being discharged from a quarantine facility in New Delhi.
They had arrived in New Delhi on special Air India flights which were sent to Wuhan as part of the evacuation operations conducted by the Indian government earlier this year.
As many as 640 Indians and 7 Maldivians were evacuated from the Chinese city in two separate operations. Immediately upon their return to New Delhi, all 647 evacuees had been sent to quarantine facilities managed by Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) and the Army in the national capital.
Of these 640 Indians, 35, who were from the north Andhra region, arrived at Visakhapatnam airport on Tuesday after their 14-day quarantine period ended.
State Nodal Officer Rambabu said that 20 of these 35 people hail from Visakhapatnam. He said that these evacuees were discharged after reports for multiple tests conducted during their quarantine period reported them negative for novel coronavirus.
Coronavirus first originated in China and has killed more than 1800 people in that country alone, while cases have been reported in several countries across the world, including India.