Iran Didn’t Have Capacity To Test Stranded Indians, So India Flew In Equipment, Scientists To Set Up Lab In Iran

The Indian government has made its mission to evacuate the Indians stranded in other countries faced with the threat of Covid-19. After China, Iran and Italy are the two most outbreak-affected countries.

In February, India evacuated hundreds of stranded Indians from Wuhan and the larger Hubei province in China. Additionally, persons from Maldives, Myanmar, Bangladesh, South Africa, Madagascar, United States, Nepal, Peru etc were also evacuated by India.

Another notable Indian evacuation effort focused on 16 infected Indian citizens that had been quarantined on board the Diamond Princess Cruise Ship, which was kept in the waters off the Japanese port of Yokohama for several days.

On Wednesday (11 March), 83 people were evacuated from Italy to New Delhi by Air India. The evacuees were 74 Indian citizens and 9 US citizens of Indian origin.

On Thursday (12 March), the Ministry of External Affairs clarified that the evacuation missions are being carried out keeping in mind the safety of the citizens in the territory.

"Evacuation does not mean we will bring everybody back. We will first bring those who are not contaminated."

Indians stranded in Iran

Around 6,000 Indian citizens are stranded in Iran, which has seen the worst outbreak outside China with around 9,000 infected persons.

Most of the Indians in Iran are students or pilgrims.

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said, "Please understand that we can only bring them back if they are tested, they have to be tested. To test them, we've started sampling today as we can't bring back untested people in a very severe epidemic situation as I have the responsibility of this country to worry about."

For Indians in Iran, the Indian Air Force sent a C-17 Globemaster III heavy military transport aircraft to Tehran.

Yesterday, union health minister Harsh Vardhan told the Lok Sabha that since Iran didn’t have the required facilities to test stranded Indians, the government decided to send laboratory equipment along with medical personnel to Iran.

Along with the equipment, a scientist from National Institute of Virology, Pune, and three others from Indian Council for Medical Research will also be present. The plan is to set up a lab in Iran itself to test the stranded Indians.

The minister also said that afterwards, India will donate the lab to the Iranian government. He added that the cause of delay is that Iran is yet to give custom clearance to India.

After setting up the lab, Indian government will carry our the sample tests of the stranded Indians, and will first evacuate those who test negative.

"The affected individuals are also a risk to their own countries. We have to take care of them. If Indians test positive elsewhere, we would expect the country they are in to take care of them like we are doing with the foreign nationals," Additional Secretary Dammu Ravi said.

"Taking flights is risky and not an option if not essential," he added.

India also provided 15 tonnes of medical assistance comprising masks, gloves and other emergency medical equipment to China. India has also received requests from Bhutan, Maldives, Iran, Italy, and China for assistance, and is currently processing those requests.