7 Maldivians discharged from ITBP quarantine camp along with 200 Wuhan evacuees after testing negative for Covid-19

Seven Maldivian nationals, who were quarantined at the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) facility in Chhawla near Delhi, were discharged on Monday night after their samples tested negative for coronavirus. These seven were evacuated from China’s Wuhan, along with Indian citizens, by the government last month.

They will depart for their home country on Tuesday.

The disease has been officially named Covid-19 by the World Health Organisation (WHO).

The seven Maldivians had arrived in India alongside 323 Indians on a special Air India flight which had been sent to China as part of an evacuation operation undertaken by the Indian government. More than 600 Indians had been evacuated from China in two special operations.

Immediately upon their arrival in the national capital, the Maldivians and the Indians were sent to quarantine facilities run by the Indian Army and ITBP, where they stayed for a period of more than two weeks.

Two hundred other people, who had tested negative for coronavirus infection, have also been discharged from the ITBP facility. All the remaining people may be released by Tuesday evening, said ITBP.

As a goodwill gesture, the ITBP presented a rose and a calendar to each of the person leaving the facility. There are seven children including an infant in the group, it said.

Coronavirus first originated in the Chinese city of Wuhan and has since then killed more than 1800 people in that country alone. At least 11,741 remain severely ill from the infection.

There are nearly 800 confirmed cases in 25 countries outside China with three deaths.

A team of medical experts from WHO, including from the US, will visit Beijing and the Chinese provinces of Guangdong and Sichuan in south and southwest China to assess the country’s efforts to contain the spread of the Covid-19.