Nepal sends domestic carrier to evacuate citizens from China's virus-hit city Wuhan

A Nepal Airlines special aircraft Airbus A-330 aircraft departed on Saturday afternoon from Kathmandu for Wuhan city in China's Hubei province (China) for the evacuation of Nepali citizens amid the coronavirus outbreak that has claimed more than 1500 people and infected at least 60,000 others.

The special flight flew for Wuhan at 4 p.m. (local time), nearly two hours late than previously announced time of 2:15 p.m. (local time).

The aircraft, which is scheduled to land at Wuhan Tianhe International Airport at 9:00 p.m. (China Time), has three pilots, six crew members, an engineer, a loadmaster and a health team as well as the Army.

"Preparations have been completed to bring on those Nepali who are stranded in China's Wuhan. The flight is being sent for the purpose and they will be flown out to Nepal this evening (China Time) by Nepal Airlines Aircraft. They are healthy, no symptoms have been seen amongst them till now," Narayan Bidari, Secretary at the Prime Minister's Office, told ANI.

A total of 185 Nepali are expected to land in Kathmandu on Sunday morning at 2:15 a.m. (local time) if they pass the health test at Wuhan airport.

After their arrival, the evacuees will be quarantined at Kharipati in Bhaktapur for fortnights and then released if they do not grow any symptoms of 'Covid-19' or the coronavirus.

The deadly virus originated in the Chinese city of Wuhan in December last year. It has since then killed more than 1,500 people in that country alone, while cases have been registered in several countries across the world, including India.