300+ Indians brought home on board another special-purpose Wuhan flight as New Delhi confirms 2nd coronavirus case

An Air India flight carrying 323 Indians and seven Maldivians from coronavirus-stricken Wuhan touched down in New Delhi on Sunday morning. It's the second time Indian citizens were airlifted from China since the outbreak.

“The second flight from #Wuhan has just landed in #Delhi. We wish all those on board good health in the days ahead,” tweeted Vikram Misri, Indian ambassador to China, extending gratitude to Beijing for greenlighting the evacuation.

It was the second time an Air India Boeing 747 has flown to the Chinese city at the epicenter of the deadly outbreak to rescue stranded Indians, many of whom are medical students at a local university.

On Saturday, the first such flight arrived in New Delhi with 324 people, bringing the total number of Indian evacuees to 657. This time, however, seven foreigners – citizens of the Republic of Maldives – were also transported.

The passengers will now be subject to monitoring in a special quarantine facility near the capital.

The news of the second flight safely returning to Indian soil came shortly after health officials confirmed the country's second case of the novel coronavirus. Like the first one, it came out of the state of Kerala.

“The patient has tested positive for novel coronavirus and is in isolation in a hospital,” the Indian Health Ministry said on Sunday. The patient's condition has been described as stable.

The first confirmed case was reported in the state of Kerala on Thursday. The individual was said to have contracted the disease while studying at Wuhan University.

It's unclear whether the patient in the second case was also a student, or whether the pair had been in close contact.

The outbreak that has been rattling China has claimed 305 lives so far, including a 44-year-old man in the Philippines. His death, reported on Saturday, became the first known lethal case of the virus outside China. Since its onset in late December, the outbreak has spilled over to more than 20 countries, prompting many of these to restrict travel to China.

Think your friends would be interested? Share this story!