The SARS-CoV-2 virus was first identified in the city of Wuhan, Hubei, China in mid-December 2019, when a group of people developed a pneumonia without clear causes, and existing treatments were found to be ineffective. The novel coronavirus has similar characteristics to severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) and Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS). Within a number of weeks, several thousand people in Hubei's provincial capital of Wuhan were infected, and the Chinese central government imposed strict containment measures, including a lockdown of Hubei itself.
Due to the effective lockdown of Wuhan and Hubei, and the continued growth of the outbreak in these locations, several countries planned to evacuate their citizens and/or diplomatic staff from the area. This was done primarily through chartered flights of the home nations, which were provided prior clearance by Chinese authorities. Australia,[1] Belgium,[2] France, Germany, India,[3] Indonesia,[4] Japan, the Philippines,[5] Sri Lanka, Thailand,[6] and the United States[7] were among the first to plan the evacuation of their citizens.[8] Pakistan has said that it will not be evacuating any citizens from China due to lack of domestic facilities to help treat Pakistanis who may be infected.[9][10]
International evacuations
Statistical overview
This section needs to be updated. Please help update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information.(August 2020)
The Peace Corps evacuated all volunteers, estimated at over 7,000[e] and suspended all volunteer programmes.[19]
Major civilian evacuations
From 15 March to 15 April, the Polish flag carrier LOT flew over 54,000 people, including Poles and other nationals, under the "LOTDoDomu" (LOT Flight Home) programme.[20][17]
The government of India plans to evacuate citizens from around the world through the "Vande Bharat Mission" in May. The first phase, with over 15,000 Indian citizens planned to be evacuated from 7 to 13 May, focuses mostly on the Gulf states and other areas with high concentrations of Indians such as the US and UK,[21][22] while the second phase, starting 15 May, will shift efforts to other European and Central Asian countries.[23] It has been predicted that this evacuation will surpass the 1990 airlift of Indians from Kuwait to be the biggest in the country's history, with estimates ranging as high as 192k-250k nationals to be brought home.[24][25] As India closed its airspace to international flights in March, these flights are crucial for both citizens wanting to return to India as well as anyone who wants to leave the country via outbound flights.[21]
Vietnam permitted four exceptional flights to take tourists and others from Wuhan home in the period 24–27 January,[28] and organised a flight to evacuate citizens and diplomats.[29]
On 26 January, ABC News's exclusive report showed over 100 Australian children were trapped in Wuhan as the Foreign Minister Marise Payne said diplomatic staff were making effort on evacuation plans.[30] On 29 January, Australia and New Zealand announced that they would cooperate in the evacuation of their citizens from Wuhan. There are between 50 and 82 New Zealanders in Wuhan and 600 Australians in Hubei including 140 Australian children in Wuhan.[31][32] The New Zealand Government chartered a Boeing 777-200ER aircraft from the national carrier Air New Zealand to assist in evacuation efforts, subject to approval from Chinese officials.[33][34][35] While prioritising New Zealand nationals, Australian and Pacific Island citizens were also carried.[36]
This was Japan's first evacuation flight. Three passengers later tested positive for the virus, with two of them becoming Japan's first asymptomatic cases.[38]
Singaporeans were evacuated from Wuhan via a special Scoot flight, crewed by volunteers from the airline after co-ordination between Singapore and Chinese authorities facilitated the flights. However, not all Singaporeans were evacuated as some displayed symptoms before the flight. Two of the evacuees were later confirmed as the first Singaporeans to have the virus. Both were asymptomatic during the flight but were found to have a fever upon arrival.[40]
Passengers left Wuhan with military medics from the UK, arriving at RAF Brize Norton in England. The British passengers were quarantined at a segregated block of Arrowe Park Hospital on the Wirral; all passengers were tested before and during the flight, with none having the virus. The other EU nationals were flown on to Spain from Brize Norton. More Britons (up to 150) were supposed to be on the flight, which was planned to leave a day earlier, but China initially declined permission, and then anyone who had a Chinese passport (including infants and a newborn to British parents) were told they could not leave. Shortly before the flight departed, this decision was reversed, but it was too late for people to get to the airport even though the plane was also delayed for several hours. The British government plans to send another plane if necessary.[44][45][46]
The German Air Force plane was denied a stopover in Moscow after its starting point in Wuhan, according to the German Minister of Defence. Originally, the plane had received approval for a layover in Moscow to stop for refuelling and a change of crew personnel. The aircraft evacuated 102 German and 26 non-German citizens. The plane made a stopover in Helsinki on its way to Frankfurt Airport. The German Minister of Health stated that all passengers showed no symptoms of the coronavirus.[53] On its way to Wuhan, the aeroplane carried 10,000 suits of protective equipment as requested by the Chinese government.[54] Two passengers later tested positive for the virus.[55]
A special Sri Lankan Airlines plane flew from Wuhan after co-ordination between the Sri Lankan Government and Chinese authorities. After arrival all passengers were quarantined at a segregated block at Diyatalawa Garrison of the Sri Lanka Army.[57]
This was India's first evacuation flight.[58] There were three minors, 211 students and 110 working professionals, and the flight was operated by Air India.[59][60]
A cargo plane delivered medical equipment to China before taking the evacuees to Ankara. All passengers were quarantined in a local disused hospital.[61]
The flight was operated by MIAT Mongolian Airlines for the government. Passengers were quarantined at the National Center for Communicable Diseases.[63]
Using a chartered Boeing 777-300ER of Biman Bangladesh Airlines, the government evacuated many people in Wuhan, mostly students studying there. After arrival they were taken to hajj camp which was turned into quarantine near Dhaka airport for 14 days. 3 people who had high temperature was taken to CMH hospital.[67]
Qantas flight chartered by the Australian government evacuated about 240 people, including 84 children and 5 infants, to the Australian mainland, before they were flown on smaller planes to the Christmas Island Detention Centre for quarantine.[82][83] The inbound flight delivered medical supplies including masks, protective suits and gloves.[84]
Aircraft operated by Air New Zealand NZ1942. Except for the Australian residents, who were subsequently sent to Australia, others were sent to Whangaparaoa military base, 25 km away from Auckland, for two weeks of quarantine.[82][89][90]
There were two flights, one of which went to Travis AFB near San Francisco, and the other which refuelled there and continued to MCAS Miramar near San Diego. Passengers on both flights were quarantined for 14 days. On 10 February, one passenger was confirmed infected and became the 13th case in the United States.[94]
The flight was operated by an Airbus A330 (registration number 9H-STY), stopped at Vancouver International Airport to refuel, and then flew to CFB Trenton near Toronto.[97] Quarantine was lifted on 21 February and no one was infected.[98]
The Brazilian Air Force used two E-190 planes. One had a fuel stop in Las Palmas, where no one disembarked. All non-Brazilians got off in Warsaw.[101][102]
Operated by Qantas Airways, with a total of 266 people evacuated including 8 Pacific Islanders.[106] Everyone was quarantined in an unused mining camp near Darwin.[107]
SIngaporeans were flown home on another special Scoot flight, numbered TR5121.[108] On 16 February, one passenger was diagnosed with the virus. On 21 February, another confirmed diagnosis was announced.[109]
The flight to Kathmandu was operated by Nepal Airlines. The original number of Nepalese to be evacuated was 185, however, 4 of them decided to stay back and 6 were barred to board the flight for medical reasons.[114][115]
Another 3 Ukrainian citizens and 1 foreign national were denied boarding the flight by Chinese authorities for medical reasons. Two Kazakhstan citizens have left the airliner during the intermediate landing in Almaty, Kazakhstan. All remaining evacuees were taken to Kharkiv Airport and then they were transported by ground to the National Guard sanatorium in Novi Sanzhary for 14 days quarantine.[121]
Second Hong Kong flight for Diamond Princess passengers. Macaunese passengers were taken to their homes by land over the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau bridge.[125]
Repatriates consist of 440 crew members and 5 tourists from the Diamond Princess.[129] The 445 Filipino repatriates were evacuated on two separate flights.[130]
This was the third evacuation flight sent by India to Wuhan. India also provided 15 tonnes of medical assistance comprising masks, gloves and other emergency medical equipment to China through the same Indian Air Force flight.[132][133]
After an Israeli passenger on another Turkish Airlines flight tested positive, the airline ran a special flight to take a Taiwanese tour group on the same flight as the confirmed case home.[136]
Two flights, with the first one being operated by China Southern Airlines, evacuated Chinese citizens to the western city.[139] A cluster of cases in Gansu, where Lanzhou is located, were linked to the evacuation.[140]
After some conflict between the Chinese and Taiwanese governments, two flights, one operated by China Airlines with 169 evacuees and another by China Eastern Airlines carrying 192, arrived around 11pm on 10 March and 4am on the 11th respectively.[145]
112 South African citizens[147][148] were evacuated on a South African Airways aircraft chartered by the South African Government. Medical screening was performed prior to departure, four South Africans who were showing signs of coronavirus were left behind to mitigate risk. Only South Africans who tested negative were repatriated. Test results cleared all the South Africans, including the flight crew, pilots, hotel staff, police and soldiers who, as a precautionary measure, all remained under observation and in quarantine for a 14-day period[147][148] at The Ranch Resort.[149][150][151][152][153][154]
89 Thai students and tourist were evacuated from Italy on a Thai Airways flight organised by Thai government. They were quarantined for 14 days in Sattahip Naval Base.
Air India operated the flight. The evacuees brought to New Delhi will be shifted to Indo-Tibetan Border Police's camp in Chhawla area where they will be quarantined for 14 days.[157]
131 students and 103 pilgrims, among others, were evacuated from Iran on a Mahan Air flight organised by the Indian Embassy. They were quarantined for 14 days in Indian Army's wellness centre facility in Jaisalmer.[158][159]
A group of 72 Taiwanese tourists flew from Lima to Miami on a privately chartered jet arranged by the Taiwanese government, after Peru declared a state of emergency due to the COVID-19 coronavirus outbreak and closed its borders on 16 March to all commercial traffic.[163]
The U.S. Embassy, in conjunction with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, organised an evacuation flight for U.S. citizens from El Dorado Airport in Bogota to Atlanta.[175]
The flight, chartered by LATAM Airlines, departed from Cusco, a southeastern city in Peru, with 38 Taiwanese on board, then flew to the capital, Lima, to pick up an additional 17 Taiwanese Nationals. Another 84 passengers of four different nationalities—Japan, Singapore, Malaysia, and the U.S. – bringing the total number of passengers to 139. The flight landed in Miami and all the passengers can choose to stay in the city or bound to their own country.[176][177]
The U.S. Embassy, in conjunction with the U.S. Department of Defense, has organised an evacuation flight for U.S. citizens from El Dorado Airport in Bogota to Eglin Air Force Base in Destin, FL.[181]
The Embassy of the United States in Liberia has announced the arrival of a second charted flight to evacuate its citizens from Liberia though the country has reported only three confirmed cases of Covid-19.[168]
An Edelweiss Air Charted flight brought 203 Swiss, British, Norwegian, EU, American and Canadian nationals from Yangon to Zurich. The first direct flight from Myanmar to Europe.[182]
The U.S. Embassy announced that Spirit Airlines will operate a humanitarian flight from Bogota, Colombia on 2 April 2020. The flight will depart from El Dorado International Airport and arrive at Fort Lauderdale – Hollywood International Airport in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.[184]
The Hong Kong Government has arranged a charted flight to bring 65 Hong Kongers, 6 Malaysians and 5 Britons from Lima to London, then the Hong Kongers will go on board a regular connecting flight with secured bookings from London to Hong Kong. For those Hong Kongers and Malaysians who are stranded in Cusco, they will also take a domestic charted flight arranged by the Hong Kong government flying to Lima.[185]
A Garuda Indonesia plane chartered by Brazilian Ministry of Foreign Affairs repatriated a total of 368 Brazilians from Vietnam, Thailand, and Indonesia to São Paulo with stopover in Amsterdam. The flight was planned to depart on 16 April but later rescheduled after Qatari government denied the flight to make stopover in Qatar.[187]
The very first flight to take back Hong Kongers from Pakistan after the nationwide lockdown. An estimated number of 2000 Hong Kong citizens are stranded in different parts of the country.[189]
All guests are advised that only Fiji citizens (Fijian passport holders) are able to enter Fiji at this time. As with all recent evacuation flights arrivals, all arriving guests will be required to go into self-isolation at a Fijian Government-mandated facility for 28 days.[190]
The very first flight to take back Hong Kongers from India after the nationwide lockdown. An estimated number of 3500 Hong Kong citizens are stranded in different parts of the country.[191]
Large-scale domestic evacuations
France
The French government has strategically moved coronavirus patients from harder-hit areas to those with less cases to spread out the strain on the hospital system. Evacuations done for this purpose include one from Corsica using a naval ship[192] and a series of high-speed TGV trains from Grand-Est to other regions.[193][194]
Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic in India, the country's central and state governments coordinated numerous international and domestic evacuations. The Indian government initiated a massive evacuation program called "Vande Bharat Mission" on 7 May 2020.[195] This involved flights via Air India and its low-cost arm Air India Express.[196] In the first three phases of the mission, the government did not allow private airlines to participate, though they have been allowed to participate in the fourth phase onwards. The government continues to set the fare, determine the routes and decide the number of flights.[197]
Over 67,000 evacuation requests were registered by MEA by 8 May 2020;[198] twenty days later, the number of registrations had increased to over 300,000. It was initially predicted that the total number of civilians evacuated could surpass the Kuwait airlift, with estimates ranging from 192,000 to 250,000.[199][200][201] On 6 August, the MEA declared that almost 950,000 Indians were repatriated.[202]
The national and local governments of Philippines have established and facilitated a program to evacuate its citizens and local migrant workers from COVID-19 hit regions to their home provinces.[citation needed]
Controversies and issues
Quarantine locations
Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced plans in late January 2020 to quarantine Australian citizens evacuated from Wuhan, including children and the elderly, for a period of 14 days on Christmas Island. The decision to repatriate those citizens using controversial detention facilities formerly used to detain asylum seekers before they were shut down in 2018 has received criticism.[203] Controversially, the government plan also necessitates those evacuees to pay a fee of A$1,000, and would take them to Perth after the quarantine period, where they would need to arrange their own transportation back to their home cities.[204] The Australian Medical Association, in a statement on the same day, stated that the decision to hold Australian citizens in "a place where has been previously the focus of populations under enormous mental and physical trauma and anguish, is not a really appropriate solution."[205]
In some places, local residents rallied against the decision to quarantine evacuees in their region. Residents of Nautana protested against the Indonesian government in early February 2020 for letting the evacuees stay there. Hundreds staged demonstrations and burned tires. As a result, Brimob and Indonesian National Armed Forces troops were deployed to ensure stable security conditions.[206] To protect and give health assurance to local people, President Joko Widodo ordered Health Minister Terawan Agus Putranto to open a temporary office in Natuna.[207]
In the Philippines, the usage of the New Clark City development as a quarantine site was met with opposition from the municipal council of Capas. The local legislative said that they were not consulted by the national Department of Health and the Bases Conversion and Development Authority regarding the plan and suggested the national government to consider a more isolated area as a quarantine site.[208]
After healthy Ukrainian evacuees returned from Wuhan to Ukraine on 20 February 2020, misinformation caused riots as protestors railed against the decision to quarantine the passengers nearby the day after they flew back, and the evacuees' bus was attacked.[209][210]
Fees and payment responsibility
Due to the nature of evacuation flights, being flown empty one-way and being arranged by charter airlines in many cases at short notice, many passengers have had to pay substantial fees for a seat.[211] Notably, the U.S. Department of State couldn't show that the prices it charged passengers for some chartered flights complied with its fare policy because it didn't have written guidance for calculating and documenting actual costs.[212] In the United States, a bill was introduced in Congress to propose waiving travel expenses for US citizens evacuated.[213] and in Nigeria, flights have been subsidised by the government.[214] Indian migrant workers also suffered with high prices, which were compounded by their lack of income due to the lockdown and economic downturn.[215][216] In response, the Jharkhand government and Congress Party branch said it would pay train fares for migrants leaving the state as well as organise special trains for residents to get to their hometowns.[217]
Improper procedures
In the United States, a Department of Health and Human Services employee claimed that the workers who received Americans from the first evacuation from Wuhan were inadequately trained and equipped.[218][219]
^At least 15 foreign citizens were evacuated. This figure was based on a 25 May flight which evacuated South Korean, Japanese, and American citizens.[12]
^"有從武漢撤僑回加的大溫華裔居民 周一恢復正常生活". Sing Tao Daily 星島日報加拿大 (in Chinese (Taiwan)). 23 February 2020. Archived from the original on 27 February 2020. Retrieved 27 February 2020.
^Gayle, Alison Rourke (now); Molly Blackall Damien; Weaver, Matthew; Murray, Jessica; Rourke (earlier), Alison; Doherty, Ben; Doherty, Ben (31 January 2020). "Virus death toll reaches 213 in China – as it happened". The Guardian. ISSN0261-3077. Archived from the original on 31 January 2020. Retrieved 31 January 2020.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
^"Hysteria over coronavirus sparks violent protests in Ukraine". ABC News. Archived from the original on 17 March 2020. Retrieved 18 March 2020. The evacuees – 45 Ukrainians, 27 Argentinians and citizens from several other South American countries, as well as 22 crew members and doctors – were flown to Ukraine from China's Hubei Province. All of them have already tested negative for the virus, authorities said, but are to be held in quarantine to ensure they aren't carrying it.
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