Special flight carrying SL nationals return from Wuhan

A special SriLankan Airlines flight on Saturday landed Colombo with Sri Lankan students and their family members, who were stranded in the Chinese city of Wuhan, the epicentre of the deadly novel coronavirus outbreak.

According to authorities, they will be quarantined at the Diyatalawa army camp, reports the Daily Mirror newspaper.

The flag carrier's special UL-1422 flight departed for Wuhan at 3.45 p.m. from the Bandaranaike International Airport (BIA) on Friday.

The Foreign Relations Ministry said that as of January 30, the estimated number of Sri Lankan students and family members remaining in China has declined to 284, from the estimated 864 when the outbreak was first reported.

The statement said 580 persons have returned to Sri Lanka.

Meanwhile, Airport and Aviation Services (Sri Lanka) Ltd. (AASL) have confirmed that proactive measures were being taken to identify, create awareness and to reduce the spread of the coronavirus, which has so far killed 259 people in China, within the BIA premises.

"We are following the procedure outlined by the World Health Organisation (WHO) in the prevention and control of the novel coronavirus infection and some of world's most advanced airports," AASL Chairman Rtd. Major General G.A. Chandrasiri told the Daily Financial Times.

"In the past few days, we have had only four suspicious travellers who came from the airport, and it has been confirmed that they were not infected with coronavirus," he added.

The developments come after Sri Lanka confirmed its first coronavirus case, making it the third country in South Asia after India and Nepal also reported one case each.

( With inputs from IANS )