Covid-19 update: Air India flight with 263 students from Italy lands in Delhi

An Air India special flight carrying 263 Indians evacuated from the coronavirus-hit Italy's capital city of Rome, landed at the Delhi airport on Sunday morning.

The evacuees -- mostly students -- will be taken to an Indo-Tibetan Border Police-managed quarantine facility in Chhawla shortly after undergoing thermal screening and immigration at the airport. "The passengers are being handled at the isolation bay — far away from other terminals and would be taken out from a separate gate for compulsory quarantine", a Delhi airport official said.

The national transporter had on Saturday deployed a Boeing 777 with 12 crew members to rescue stranded Indian citizens in Rome, Italy, amid the Covid-19 outbreak.

"The relief flight AI 1122 from Rome landed at 9.16am in Delhi with 263 passengers on board. A big salute to our gallant crew and ground staff," Air India officials said.

"The crew members had been provided with hazmat suits for safety," one of the officials added. Centre may need to deploy another flight as more than 500 are estimated to be stranded in Italy at the moment.

This is the second batch of Indians evacuated from Italy. Earlier, as many as 218 Indians were evacuated from the Italian city of Milan.

Meanwhile, Italy on Sunday announced its biggest day-to-day increase of infections, which rose by 6,600 with nearly 800 new fatalities from the virus that causes COVID-19. The country's total death toll of more than 4,825 has surpassed the number of deaths in China, where the first cases emerged late last year.

(Inputs and image from hindustantimes.com)