Coronavirus: Final batch of inmates at ITBP quarantine facility discharged

NEW DELHI: The third and final batch of inmates quarantined at an ITBP facility here after being evacuated from the coronavirus-hit Chinese city of Wuhan was discharged, a senior official said on Wednesday.

With the latest release, all 406 people at the Indo Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) facility have been discharged after being declared free of coronavirus by the doctors.

The release of the inmates that began on February 17 ended on Wednesday morning with the last departure of a family of six people, ITBP spokesperson Vivek Kumar Pandey said.

The discharge process was initiated after the final coronavirus reports of all the 406 people living at the facility tested negative.

"Doctors manning our facility have sensitised the outgoing people to take certain measures of personal hygiene and self-isolation for a few days," the spokesperson said.

A total of 650 people were brought back from Wuhan in China on February 1 and 2 in two 747 Boeing Air India aircraft after the outbreak of the coronavirus in that country.

While 406 of them were sent to the ITBP facility in Chhawala area in the national capital, the rest were quarantined at an Army centre in Haryana's Manesar.

The ITBP is a border guarding force with the primary task of guarding the 3,488-km Line of Actual Control (LAC) with China. It functions under the Union Home Ministry.

The death toll from the coronavirus epidemic in China crossed the 2,000-mark on Wednesday with the death of 136 more people, while the overall confirmed cases climbed to 74,185.