New Delhi, March 13 The second batch of evacuees from the Chinese city of Wuhan, the epicentre of the coronavirus outbreak, were declared free of the disease and were released from the ITBP quarantine facility on Friday.
The 112 evacuees, housed at the Chhawla Camp facility since February 27, were released after completion of the quarantine period and testing negative for COVID-19.
The group comprises 76 Ind and 36 foreign nationals, including eight families and five children.
The foreign nationals in the group comprised 23 from Bangladesh, six from China, two each from Myanmar and Maldives, and one each from Madagascar, South Africa and the US.
Two tests were conducted on the inmates of the quarantine camp. The first one was conducted on day 1 and the second test on day 14 of the quarantine period, in which all samples were found to be negative.
Union Minister of State for Home Affairs, Nityanand Rai and S.S. Deswal, DG, ITBP, met the group at the Centre and addressed a gathering.
The second group were also provided all basic facilities required at the centre as done with the previous lot of evacuees.
ITBP medicos conducted daily monitoring and checkups of the inmates during the quarantine period.
The quarantine camp at Chhawla in New Delhi was set up by the ITBP in just 48 hours ahead of the first batch of Wuhan evacuees' arrival on February 1.
The Chawla camp quarantine facility had successfully managed the first batch of 406 people, airlifted from Wuhan from February 1-2, and released after testing negative for coronavirus.
The centre has successfully quarantined 518 people, the largest number in the country till now, who were airlifted from Wuhan.
( With inputs from IANS )