Around 60,000 foreign nationals from 72 countries have been evacuated from India despite the logistical challenges faced during the ongoing lockdown, the MEA said today.
Continuing an active outreach, the MEA has held a series of meetings through video-conference with groups of Resident Ambassadors of foreign missions in Delhi. The Resident Ambassadors have been briefed about the prevailing Covid-19 situation in the country as well as measures taken to combat the pandemic, particularly to mitigate its negative impact for the vulnerable sections of the society and on the economy at large.
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“Through the resident Ambassadors, we thanked the foreign governments for taking care of Indians citizens including students stranded in their countries,” MEA spokesperson Anurag Srivasatava said today.
He added that Resident Ambassadors expressed their deep appreciation for the manner in which the fight against the pandemic was being handled in India by the authorities. “They were also thankful to the Ministry for providing all necessary assistance to their Embassies and their nationals during the lockdown period,” Srivastava said.
“Special mention was made of MEA’s role in helping with the evacuating of foreign nationals from all parts of the country despite the challenge of logistics during the lockdown period (about 60000 foreign nationals from 72 countries have been evacuated). India’s assistance to a large number of countries in providing emergency medical supplies was also greatly appreciated,” he added.
Continuing with its recently acquire reputation of being a “pharmacy to the world”, India has already provided 2.8 million HCQ tablets as grant assistance to 25 countries and 1.9 million paracetamol tablets to 31 countries. “In addition, consignments of HCQ and of paracetamol are being sent to 87 countries on a commercial basis,” Srivastava said.
India has also responded promptly to requests for deployment of Rapid Response Teams (RRTs) comprising doctors, nurses and paramedics to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic. These RRTs have so far been deployed in Maldives and Kuwait at the request of their governments.
“These RRTs have helped to train and exchange best practices with local medical professionals on various aspects of dealing with the pandemic. They have provided training on testing, critical care nursing, oxygen therapy isolation systems, infection prevention, etc,” the MEA Spokesperson said.