Melbourne:
The repatriation flights facilitated by the Australian government for its stranded citizens in India resumed from today, Australia’s Foreign Minister Marise Payne mentioned.
Ms Payne mentioned that a flight today departed from Sydney to choose up Australian passengers in New Delhi prior to arriving back in Darwin on Saturday.
It has also carried life-saving oxygen gear to India to help its COVID-19 response, she mentioned.
Ms Payne mentioned the passengers would have to undergo a strict quarantine to make sure they are not carrying the variant of the coronavirus initially identified in India.
These passengers will quarantine at the Centre for National Resilience at Howard Springs in the Northern Territory, she mentioned, adding all passengers would undergo PCR and Rapid Antigen Testing prior to they travel.
This would be the initially flight right after the Australian government imposed a short-term ban lately with a threat of criminal sanctions, which includes 5 years in jail and fines of up to 66,000 Australian dollars for people today who attempt to return from India.
Ms Payne mentioned this short-term pause had helped mitigate the danger of potentially larger prices of infection presenting on arrival in Australia and ensured the quarantine technique was in a position to get additional flights.
These government-facilitated flights will be focused on returning Australian citizens, residents and households who have registered with our High Commission and consular offices inside India and will prioritise the most vulnerable people today, the minister mentioned.
Saturday’s flight into Darwin brings the total quantity of government facilitated industrial flights from India to 39 returning more than 6,400 Australians due to the fact March 2020.
This will be the second flight of vital healthcare supplies to help our partners in their COVID-19 wellness response beneath the Morrison Government’s 37.1 million Australian dollar help package for India, which is experiencing a serious price of COVID-19 infections, she mentioned.
The next government-facilitated industrial flight from India is anticipated to arrive in Darwin on May 23rd and arrangements for additional facilitated flights into Australia are underway.
Australia has now delivered more than 15 tonnes of healthcare supplies to India, which includes more than 2,000 ventilators and more than one hundred oxygen concentrators.
Greg Hunt, the Minister for Health and Aged Care, mentioned the Australian Government stood prepared to provide additional emergency healthcare supplies if requested by the Indian Government.
The Australian Government is committed to performing all it can to help the Indian Government’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Mr Hunt mentioned.
Ms Payne also praised the response of Australian firms and every day Australians and welcomed the help presented from state and territory governments.
The Victorian Government has committed 1,000 ventilators, the Queensland Government has donated 2 million Australian dollars in relief funds to the Australian Red Cross and Western Australia has also donated 2 million Australian dollars in relief funds.
Australia is also in close consultation with the New South Wales and South Australian governments on their proposed help to India to combat the pandemic.
With 3,43,144 people today testing positive for coronavirus in a day, India’s COVID-19 tally of circumstances climbed to 2,40,46,809, when the quantity of deaths rose to 2,62,317 with 4,000 each day fatalities, according to the Union Health Ministry information updated today.
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