Special flight evacuates 134 Bhutanese students stranded in Punjab

As many as 134 Bhutanese students, who had been stranded in the hostels of Lovely Professional University near Jalandhar, were evacuated by a special flight arranged by the Bhutanese government.

"134 Bhutanese students, who had been stranded in the hostels of Lovely Professional University, Phagwara-Jalandhar, were allowed to leave for Bhutan through a special flight arranged by Bhutanese government," Punjab's special chief secretary (disaster management COVID-19) KBS Sidhu tweeted on Monday.

Last week, Bhutan had thanked India for facilitating the evacuation of Bhutanese nationals stranded in India due to coronavirus lockdown.

Bhutan has evacuated many people residing in India in the past few days. The Himalayan country has sealed its border with India last month to stem the spread of coronavirus.

India is under a 21-day lockdown till April 14 and has suspended all flight operations.

So far, Bhutan has reported five coronavirus cases.

India has cleared the first list of 13 countries to export hydroxychloroquine including Bhutan. Informed sources from the government told on Saturday that Bhutan will get two lakh tablets of hydroxychloroquine, which is an anti-malarial drug.

Meanwhile, Thimphu has committed USD 100,000 to the SAARC emergency fund proposed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to help combat COVID-19 in the region.

( With inputs from ANI )