India has created a Coronavirus quarantine facility near Manesar in Haryana with the help of the Army, for around 300 Indian students who will be arriving from Wuhan – the epicentre of a contagion that is causing mounting global fear.

At the facility, students will be monitored for a duration of weeks by a qualified team of doctors and staff members.

“After coming to India, the students will be taken directly to the quarantine facility where they can be monitored for a duration of two weeks by a qualified team of doctors and staff members, to watch for any signs of infection,” said an Indian Army officer.

According to the Army, the procedure of screening and quarantine will comprise two steps – the first is screening at the airport followed by quarantine at Manesar and if any individual is suspected to be infected, he/she will be shifted to an isolation ward at Base Hospital in Delhi Cantonment.

#CORONAVIRUS#IndianArmy responding to the emergency has created a facility near #Manesar for quarantine of approximately 300 #Indian students arriving from #Wuhan #China, students will be monitored by a qualified team of doctors, to watch for any signs of infection.#NationFirst pic.twitter.com/85G8HLv972

— ADG PI – INDIAN ARMY (@adgpi) January 31, 2020

The screening of the Indian students from Wuhan, at the airport, will be done by a joint team of Armed Forces Medical Services (AFMS) and Airport Health Authority (APHO).

During the screening, the returning students will be classified into three groups.

The first group will be suspect cases where individuals with any signs of fever and/or cough and/or respiratory distress will be directly transferred to Base Hospital Delhi Cantonment.

The second group would be ‘close contact’, comprising individuals without symptoms but having visited a seafood/animal market or a health facility or having come into contact with a Chinese person with symptoms in the last 14 days will be escorted in an earmarked vehicle directly to the quarantine facility.

The third group would be non-contact case. “Any individual without any symptom(s) or contact or who does not fit into either (a) or (b) will also be clubbed along with the close contact category and sent to the quarantine facility,” the officer said.

The quarantine facility consists of accommodation barracks for the students, administrative areas and medical facility area.

To prevent mass outbreak, the facility has been divided into sectors, each with a maximum capacity of 50 students each.

“Each barrack has been further subdivided into barracks. The population of sectors will not be allowed to intermingle with each other,” the officer said.

Daily medical examination of all students will be done at the medical facility area and all the staff, health care workers and housekeeping staff will be wearing personal protective equipment, comprising a mask, eye shield, shoe cover, gown and gloves, at all times.

All students and visitors will wear a three-layered mask at all times.

“After 14 days, persons with no symptoms will be allowed to go home with their detailed documentation sent to the district/state surveillance units for further surveillance,” the officer said.

Those found infected will be shifted to BHDC’s isolation ward for further medical exams and recovery. Samples for viral confirmation will be sent to the NCDC, Delhi and patients will be discharged only after clinical recovery and two successive negative samples tested for n-COV.

Apart from playing games, watching TV and having meals together within a barrack, no one will be allowed to interact with the members of another barrack and definitely not another sector.

The facility will be administered by a nominated Officer In Charge (OIC) who will have under his command a community medicine Specialist, two nursing officers, a woman medical officer and a nursing assistant. No civilian or service personnel detailed to work inside the facility will be allowed to go outside, unless compelled by an extreme emergency situation.

Meanwhile, another quarantine facility for approximately 600 Indian families arriving from Wuhan has been swiftly created by the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) near Chhawla camp in Delhi.

Families and children will be taken to the ITBP facility from the airport. At the camp, a qualified team of doctors will monitor the inmates for any signs of infection.

The Cabinet Secretary on Friday reviewed the preparedness, in the light of the deadly Coronavirus, with Ministries of Health & Family Welfare, External Affairs, Defence, Home Affairs, Civil Aviation, Information & Broadcasting, Labour & Employment, and Shipping.

It has been decided that all those who have come from China after January 15, 2020, shall be tested as there is an incubation period for the virus.

The Cabinet Secretary has also stressed upon the need for 14-day home isolation for all those who have returned from China.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Shipping is on high alert amid the virus outbreak, taking all necessary precautionary measures against it. Directives have been issued by the Ministry for thorough screening of vessels, seafarers and passengers entering all major and minor ports in India.

On the medical preparedness front, six labs started functioning from Thursday – (1) NIV Bengaluru Unit, (2) Victoria Hospital Campus, KR Road, Fort, Bengaluru (3), AIIMS, New Delhi (4), NCDC, Delhi (5) Kasturba Hospital for infectious diseases, Mumbai (8) NIV – Kerala Unit.

Six more labs will start functioning by January 31, 2020 – (1) ICMR – NICED, Kolkata (2) GMC, Secunderabad (3) KGMU, Lucknow (4) SMS, Jaipur (5) IGGMC, Nagpur (6) KIPMR, Chennai.

India confirmed its first case of Coronavirus after a student, who returned to Kerala from Wuhan was found infected with the virus.

Meanwhile, a special Air India flight has departed for Wuhan from Delhi to evacuate at least 400 Indians from the Chinese city which is at the epicentre of the deadly novel Coronavirus (2019-nCoV) that has so far killed 213, with nearly 10,000 infected.

Air India Chairman and Managing Director Ashwani Lohani in a tweet said that the national carrier Air India is on a rescue mission to evacuate Indians from Wuhan. He said that a Jumbo 747 will carry out the evacuation process.

According to reports, the crew, which includes at least five doctors, have been instructed to only allow non-infected people into the aircraft.

India earlier requested China for permission to operate two flights to bring back its nationals from worst-affected central Hubei province. Wuhan is the provincial capital of Hubei.

The Coronavirus has caused alarm because of its similarity to SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome), which killed nearly 650 people across mainland China and Hong Kong in 2002-2003.

Like SARS, it can be passed among people through the respiratory tract.

The Coronavirus is a large family of viruses that causes illnesses ranging from the common cold to acute respiratory syndromes, but the virus in China is a novel strain and not seen before.

The symptoms of infection include fever, cough and breathing problems.