Afghan evacuees to undergo COVID-19 quarantine at ITBP facility: Govt

New Delhi: The Centre said on Tuesday that those evacuated from Afghanistan would have to undergo a mandatory 14-day quarantine at ITBP's Chhawla camp near Delhi.

The move comes after at least two of the 146 people who landed in Delhi on Monday after they were evacuated from Kabul before they were taken to Doha, tested positive for coronavirus disease (Covid-19).

Officials in the ITBP familiar with the development said that the first batch of 81 people who were evacuated from Afghanistan will be quarantined at ITBP camp in Chhawla for 14 days.

"Those who tested positive for Covid-19 would be shifted to dedicated hospitals later," an ITBP official told news agency ANI.

The Indan government is currently running an emergency operation to evacuate the people from Afghanistan, after it fell to the Taliba. The government has allowed exemption from mandatory pre-boarding RT-PCTR testing — the norm for international travellers — for people who are being airlifted from the war-torn country.

Earlier in the day, Union minister Hardeep Singh Puri said that India has evacuated 626 people, including 228 citizens and 77 Afghan Sikhs, till Tuesday and the process of repatriation is ongoing.

Among the evacuees IAF aircraft brought were Afghan lawmakers Narendra Singh Khalsa and Anarkali Honaryar and their families.

On Tuesday, India brought 78 people, including 25 Indian citizens, airlifted from Kabul via Tajikistan's Dushanbe in a special Air India flight.