As many as 16 Afghan evacuees, out of 78 who landed in Delhi yesterday i.e, on Tuesday have tested Covid positive. All the positive people have been admitted to LNJP Hospital and the rest are quarantined at an Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) camp in south-west Delhi’s Chhawla.
According to an office memorandum issued by the Union Health Ministry on Monday, people arriving from Afghanistan have to undergo a “mandatory minimum 14-day institutional quarantine” at the ITBP facility.
The memorandum read, “Any person testing positive or detected as symptomatic shall be shifted to dedicated Covid Care Centre or Covid hospital of NCT of Delhi. “
On Tuesday, 78 people, including 46 Afghan Sikhs and Hindus, flew into Delhi from Kabul via Dushanbe on an Air India flight along with three copies of Sikh scripture Guru Granth Sahib.
Union ministers Hardeep Singh Puri and V Muraleedharan received the three copies of the Sikh scripture and the batch of Afghan Sikhs at the Indira Gandhi International (IGI) Airport.
Nearly 200 more Afghan Sikhs and Hindus are still stuck in Afghanistan.
These people have taken shelter at the Karte Parwan gurdwara in Kabul, which is close to the airport, said the president of the Indian World Forum, an organisation coordinating evacuation efforts with the Ministry of External Affairs and the Indian Air Force (IAF), Puneet Singh Chandhok.
