National carrier Air India will send a 787 Dreamliner aircraft to Rome on the afternoon of Saturday, 21 March, to evacuate Indians stranded there amid the coronavirus crisis, news agency PTI reported

On Thursday, Dammu Ravi, Additional Secretary in the Ministry of External Affairs, had said at a media briefing that 380 swab samples of Indians were brought back from Italy. Out of these, four were tested positive for coronavirus, PTI had quoted him as saying.

An Air India official said the flight to Rome would take off from the Delhi airport around 2:30 pm.

The flight will evacuate all Indians stranded in Rome and return to Delhi on Sunday morning, the official added.

Italy announced 627 more deaths on Friday, the biggest daily jump in the country’s four-week epidemic, taking the stricken country’s death toll to 4,032. This came a day after the European country surpassed China’s death toll, news agency AP reported.

A total of 218 Indians, mostly students, were evacuated from Milan last Sunday, following which they were taken to an ITBP quarantine facility in south-west Delhi's Chhawla area.

Evacuation On For Indians In Iran

Meanwhile, India is also evacuating Indians stranded in Iran in batches. On Sunday, 15 March, two Air India flights carrying over 230 Indians from coronavirus-hit Iran landed in Jaisalmer. The passengers of the flight have been quarantined at the Indian Army Wellness Centre at Jaisalmer, PTI reported.

India’s External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said the batch comprised 131 students and 103 pilgrims.

Iran has registered more than 1,400 deaths amid the outbreak of COVID-19, Al Jazeera reported.