Everything you need to know about the evacuation

The Coronavirus Pandemic has also affected the educational systems worldwide, leading to the widespread closures of schools, colleges, and universities. Here, we will discuss the current scenario of COVID-19, evacuation of Indian nationals (including students) stranded abroad, the standard operating protocol by the ministry of home affairs for evacuation, and countries included in the first phase of evacuation, which started on 7th May 2020. 

During this time of the pandemic, many people are in distress due to the lockdown. The pandemic has affected the daily lives of the people on a large scale be it employment, business, or tourism so the Indian government has thought of evacuating its nationals from abroad.

Now I will tell you what evacuation means?

Evacuation simply means the act of moving people from one place to some other place due to some emergency. At this time every nation wants to keep its citizens safe with respect to this, the Indian government has started the evacuation process in a phased manner. The 1st phase started from 7th to 13th May and the second phase of evacuation will commence from the 16th of May.

The first evacuation due to coronavirus was done in Wuhan, China, Iran, and Milan that is in Italy because they were the countries most hit by the virus. People were only evacuated from these places. From the imposition of the travel restrictions, no evacuation was done from any other country till 7th May 2020. The External Affairs Minister made it clear that the Indian embassy is taking all the steps towards Indian national’s safety stuck in any country.

During the 1st phase of evacuation, Indian nationals evacuated from 12 countries. This evacuation was for the Indian nationals who were in distress due to the lengthy period of lockdown and due to this, they wanted to return to their nation immediately. But if you are safe and secure where you are at this moment then it would be better that you do not move because everyone is in quarantine these days. It is one of the most crucial measures to keep yourself safe from the pandemic. Until there is no vaccine or medication available for it, let prevention be the cure!

There are planned flights for every country. The prices of all the flight arrangements will be paid by travelers on their own. There is a fixed price range as per the countries that are between 12,000 to 1 lakhs rupees.

Protocol

To evacuate Indian nationals there should be a protocol that should be followed by everyone so the ministry of Home Affairs has issued a detailed protocol list that is the standard operating procedure for people who desire of traveling back to their nation from abroad and also for people who are stranded in India.

So let’s start with the protocol one by one!

• You will have to register yourself with the Indian missions in whichever country you are stranded in.
• You will be brought back by non-scheduled passenger flights and naval ships operated by the civil aviation ministry and department of military affairs. Only those staff and crew will be allowed to operate who are COVID19 negative
• Priority will be given to the cases in distress, migrants, laborers, short term visa holder, medical emergencies, pregnant women, elderly, death of a family member and students.
• Everyone traveling would have to pay the cost of their travel on themselves.
• The ministry of external affairs has made a ship and flight wise database of passengers based on their registrations, including information on RT PCS test taken by the passengers and its result. This database will be shared with the different states and union territories too.
• The external affairs ministry is going to designate state-wise nodal officers who will be coordinating with nodal officers appointed by the states and the UTs.
• The External Affairs ministry will display the date, place, and time of arrival of ship and flights on its digital platform at least before two days’ notice.
• The travelers have to provide a mandatory undertaking that they will stay in an institutional quarantine facility for 14 days when they arrive in India.
• There would be a thermal screening of passengers. The only asymptomatic passenger would be allowed to travel.
• All the health protocols ought to be followed on flights and ships. The thermal screening will be done even after the arrivals as well.
• You will be asked to download the Arogya Setu Application on your cell phone and register for the same.
• Symptomatic passengers after the arrival will be taken to the medical facility. Asymptomatic passenger will be taken to suitable institutional quarantine facilities
• If asymptomatic passengers get tested negative after 14days then they will be allowed to go home but even then they will have to monitor themselves for another 14 days.

These protocols are for Indian citizens who have traveled abroad before lockdown due to employment, studies, tourism, business or internship, or in the case of death of a family member or health emergency.