As Iran announced on Thursday 75 more deaths due to the coronavirus outbreak, taking the death toll to 429, India will operate two special flights to the country to evacuate Indians.
Two flights are scheduled for the operation: One will fly out from Mumbai on March 13, 12:30 PM, and the other will embark from Delhi on 15th March, 1:40 am.
About 6000 Indians are in Iran, out of which 1100 are pilgrims from the union territory of Jammu & Kashmir, Ladakh, and the state of Maharashtra, 300 are students from J&K and 1000 are fishermen from Kerala, Tamil Nadu, and Gujrat.
Meanwhile, while addressing the Lok Sabha, External Affairs Minister that efforts are on to evacuate Indian nationals stranded in coronavirus-plagued countries like Italy and Iran.
"There are some operational constraints, as the Iranian system is strict. But we will do whatever we must, to check the spread of the coronavirus," he said, adding that "extraordinary circumstances require extraordinary measures."
The minister listed, as per available data, an approximate range of the number of Indian nationals stranded in other countries. He also said that precaution should be taken in dealing with individuals in virus-infected regions, as they would understandably in a state of anxiety and that "an excessive sense of alarm" would only prove detrimental.
India evacuated 58 Indians from Iran on Tuesday via a special Indian Air Force flight. The flight also carried samples of 529 Indians stranded in the country to be tested.
So far, India has evacuated 948 people in 5 missions it has carried out. Out of 948 people, 900 are Indians and 48 are nationals of 10 countries-- Maldives, Myanmar, Bangladesh, China, USA, Madagascar, Sri Lanka, Nepal, South Africa and Peru from corona infected countries.
Moreover, Raveesh Kumar, spokesperson of Ministry of External Affairs, said that India has received requests from some of the countries in the neighbourhood in terms of providing them assistance for protective gear.
"We have received requests (for protective gear) from Bhutan, Maldives, Iran, and Italy. In China, it has already been dispatched," Raveesh Kumar said.
Meanwhile, India has suspended all visas till April 15 barring few exceptions as fears grow over coronavirus outbreak. This comes into effect on March 13, Friday at 1200 GMT. The exceptions are provided for diplomatic, official, UN/International Organizations, employment & project visas.
For Indian nationals, the government has "strongly advised" to "avoid all non-essential travel abroad", according to the new travel advisory issued by the health ministry. On their return, the advisory said, "they can be subjected to quarantine for a minimum of 14 days."
The development comes even as Worth Health organisation (WHO) has officially declared the crisis as a pandemic.