US, UK to evacuate citizens from India amid coronavirus lockdown

The United States and the United Kingdom are set to airlift their nationals from India in the wake of the COVID-19 outbreak.

The United States will start evacuating its nationals from India on Monday. The first group of the US nationals will fly onboard a chartered aircraft from New Delhi to San Francisco on Monday, according to the American Embassy in New Delhi. Two other aircraft will fly from New Delhi to San Francisco on Tuesday and Wednesday with the Americans, who are currently in northern and eastern India and want to return to the US. Two other chartered aircraft will fly from Mumbai to Atlanta on Tuesday and Friday with the US citizens, who are currently visiting or living in southern and western India.

The UK Government has arranged seven charter flights for British nationals in India to fly to London from Goa, Mumbai and New Delhi.

“We know how worrying the past few weeks have been for British nationals in India. I hope this announcement will bring relief, especially to those in greatest need. Due to the large numbers of British travellers involved, the scale of this operation is huge. The UK Government continues to work hard with our Indian counterparts in New Delhi and London to arrange a safe journey back for as many people as possible,” Jan Thompson, acting High Commissioner of India to UK, said.

India, however, still does not have any plan to evacuate its nationals from the US or the UK.

“We do not know if US government-organized flights returning to the US will continue after this week. We urge US citizens who want to return to the US to take advantage of the current opportunities,” the American Embassy in New Delhi said in an advisory posted on its website.

The COVID-19 has infected over 1.13 million people around the world and killed over 62700 of them so far. Over 8000 died out of more than 300,000 people infected by the virus in the US. The UK has so far reported over death of over 4,300 out of 43,000 infected people. In India, at least 3,300 people have fallen sick after being infected by the virus and 79 of them have died so far.

India and the US have imposed lockdowns and restrictions on arrivals and departures of the international passenger aircraft in order to contain the pandemic.

The US Embassy in New Delhi will also arrange chartered aircraft for Americans to fly from Dehradun, Amritsar and Chandigarh to Delhi to catch the flights to San Francisco. It is also arranging for bus transportation from Ludhiana and Dharamshala to Delhi.

The US Consulate General Mumbai has arranged ground transportation to Mumbai from areas including Goa, Ahmedabad, Surat, Vadodara, Valsad and Pune. In cooperation with US Consulates General Chennai and Hyderabad, they are also working to arrange domestic charter flights to allow the US citizens from southern cities to reach Mumbai.