It was homecoming for 713 Indians who were stranded in Sri Lanka since the beginning of the COVID-19 lockdown in March, as Indian Navy ship INS Jalashwa berthed at the VOC Port on Tuesday. They were repatriated from the island nation’s capital Colombo under the Centre’s ‘Samudra Setu’ programme.
Of the repatriates, 693 are from Tamil Nadu, three from Kerala, two from Karnataka and one from the Union Territory of Puducherry.
The 173.7-m-long naval ship left Colombo shortly after 7 p.m. on Monday and was docked at the VOC Port’s refurbished coal jetty at 10 a.m. on Tuesday. District Collector Sandeep Nanduri and chairman of VOC Port T.K. Ramachandran received them cordially.
After the repatriates disembarked from the ship, all the while following physical distancing norms, they were taken for medical screening. Their baggage were disinfected. After the screening, Immigration and Customs formalities were completed and they were taken in 25 TNSTC buses to their home districts.
Blood samples and throat swabs were collected from 58 passengers from Thoothukudi before they were taken to ‘isolation camps’.
“If they test negative for COVID-19, they will be allowed to go home, where they will be quarantined for two weeks. If they test positive, the affected passengers will be taken to the Thoothukudi Government Medical College Hospital for treatment,” said Mr. Sandeep.
A passenger said that two persons were denied permission to board the ship as their body temperatures were well above normal, and a couple too stayed back as the husband, having renal complications, was in need of medical assistance.
In the next leg of the rescue operation, Visakhapatnam-based INS Jalashwa is expected to sail to Male in Maldives and Bandar Abbas in Iran, from where stranded Indians will be brought to the VOC Port on June 7 and June 17, respectively.
