Indian Armed Forces have dispatched Naval ships with medical teams and aid supplies to several countries in the IOR region. In return journey, the Ships will bring back Indian national evacuees from this region.
Further, Armed Forces have kept in readiness six quarantine facilities that can accommodate up to 2,100 Indians being evacuated from several countries in coordination with the Ministry of External Affairs and Ministry of Civil Aviation. The Indian National evacuees stranded due to COVID19 in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Malaysia will be housed in the quarantine facilities maintained by the three Services- Indian Army, Indian Navy and Indian Air Force- in Jodhpur, Jaisalmer, Bhopal, Kochi, Vishakhapatnam and Chennai.
The evacuees will undergo mandatory quarantine as per the SOPs in the following quarantine facilities, run by the Army, Navy and Air Force after which further necessary action will be taken for their onward journey as per the approved SOPs.
Besides, naval ships have sailed with with food grains, medical teams, medicines to Indian Ocean Region (IOR) countries and they will evacuate Indians during return journey. Indian Naval Ship (INS) Kesari has proceeded on deployment to Southern Indian Ocean Region from yesterday (May 6) till June 29, 2020. The ship will visit Madagascar, Comoros, Maldives and Seychelles. It will deliver 10-12 tonnes of medicines each to all these countries. It will also provide 660 tonnes of food grains to Maldives. Medical teams comprising of 14 personnel (eight doctors and six paramedics) and 13 personnel (four doctors and nine paramedics) have been dispatched to Mauritius and Comoros respectively.
Earlier, INS Jalashwa sailed to Maldives for evacuating stranded Indian nationals. It reached Male earlier today. The ship will start for Kochi tomorrow with evacuee Indians. The INS Magar has also sailed to Maldives and is on the way to Male. The INS Airawat and INS Shardul are likely to proceed to Gulf region for evacuation of Indian nationals.
Ministry of Defence
[Press Release dt. 07-05-2020]
[Source: PIB]
