Flashing victory signs, smiles, evacuated Delhiites head for quarantine

But on Friday, the buzz, the vrooming of cars, and the sense of immediacy among the security personnel were back as 235 Indians are being brought back home from Singapore on a special Air India flight, as part of ‘Vande Bharat' - one of the largest and most audacious international evacuations by India, in wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.

As early as 9 in morning, authorities including the New Delhi district administration, Delhi Police, officials from Uttar Pradesh and other neighbouring states like that of Haryana reached the airport to check on arrangements.

States like UP, and Haryana sent buses to receive the returnees from their states, while Delhi government will use DTC buses to shift the rescued individuals to compulsory quarantine facilities before sending them to their families.

At about 12 noon, the medical screening of the returnees who deboarded the flights started. "We are deboarding returnees in small batches of about 10-15 individuals. We will first complete formalities and then take to medical screening inside the airport complex then they will be sent to the buses," an airport official, who refused to be named, told IANS.

The first of the 12 DTC buses started just before 3 PM with a Delhi Police PCR van escorting it. Between landing and boarding the buses were a gruelling 3 hours of medical screening where each and every inbound passenger went through a tedious process. First, they were segregated in small groups after which each one of them were checked for their temperatures through thermal screening.

Then all evacuees had to submit their passports and fill a self declaration form before heading to a restricted zone where doctors examined them for symptoms. Once cleared through all stages, they were handed back their passports and sent to quarantine facilities through buses.

After making it through, one by one the evacuees headed out, most of them wearing a smile on their face as they breathed a sense of ‘Swadesh' after more than a month of uncertainty and paranoia.

At most 15 individuals are allowed per bus to maintain social distancing. However, most buses had less than 15 occupants. The first bus had mostly women which headed to south Delhi. The 10 occupants of the second one were more animated in their expression of relief with some even sporting victory signs at media crews that were stationed at a reasonable distance.

A child barely 6 years old who boarded the third bus wore a tired look but his eyes were telling the tale of the sense of uncertainty he and his family has gone through ever since the pandemic broke out and India shut its airspace.

They will be accommodated in different hotels across the national capital where they will spend the next 14 days in quarantine before they can head home. These paid quarantine facilities include 1,200 rooms across 60 hotels in Delhi which includes Hotel Park View and Hotel Grand Imperial. Both of them have been asked to isolate 10 and 35 rooms, respectively. Speaking to IANS, an official said that rooms in luxury hotels like Le Meridian, Sheraton, Vivanta, Red Fox and IBIS have also been booked for this purpose.

Earlier, speaking to IANS, Le Meridien's food and beverage Manager Rajeev Anand said how the chef has curated a special menu which has both Indian as well as continental touches. "Namaste! There's nothing like staying at home for real comfort. Welcome Home," was the signage that welcomes the evacuees meant for stay at Le Meridien.

This has been one of the most daring, ambitious evacuations India ever had where it is bringing stranded Indians back home through special flights and ships from places as far as Singapore to Dubai and Europe.

National carrier Air India's first standalone evacuation flight under the Vande Bharat Mission landed at the national capital's IGI Airport from Singapore on Friday morning here at around 11.50 a.m. with 234 passengers.

While this has just been the start and will continue for a few days till all the 14,800 stranded Indians from 12 countries are brought back, for those 234 who came home today, the glitter in their eyes spoke for itself as they left Delhi's IGI airport waving from inside their buses.