One of the first actions in the war against the coronavirus was to set up a quarantine facility for Wuhan evacuees. Here we take a look at the unfolding of events and activities at the Manesar facility.
The Corona Virus epidemic had blown up in full measure at Wuhan by mid January 2020 – resultantly the entire Hubei province was placed under an unprecedented lockdown. As they learnt about the eerie silence in Wuhan, many nations started receiving desperate pleas for help from their nationals stranded in Wuhan. Amongst them were about 1000+ Indian students and citizens. Plans to evacuate them began to take shape.
On 28th January, the Indian Army was queried with regard to placing such evacuees from Wuhan in quarantine. A quick look back in time, and the Army recalled that during the Ebola virus outbreak in Africa a few years ago, Indian troops returning from UN Peacekeeping in Congo were quarantined at a complex in Manesar for three weeks. The same facility could be operationalized again.