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| Disinfectant is sprayed on a vehicle entering the Korea Defense Language Institute in Icheon, Gyeonggi Province, Tuesday. The facility will house the third batch of evacuees from the coronavirus-hit Chinese city of Wuhan, who are scheduled to arrive Wednesday. / Yonhap |
By Kang Seung-woo
A third government-chartered plane flew to the coronavirus-stricken Chinese city of Wuhan, Tuesday, to evacuate 170 Koreans and their Chinese family members.
According to the foreign ministry, the flight left Incheon International Airport at 8:39 p.m. and is due to return to Gimpo International Airport Wednesday morning.
"The charter flight plans to bring back 170 citizens and their immediate family members, including Chinese nationals," Vice Health Minister Kim Gang-lip, who doubles as deputy head of the central disaster headquarters, said in a regular media briefing earlier in the day.
"Those who pass through the Chinese authorities' quarantine check will be able to board."
He added a foreign ministry quick response team, comprised of doctors, nurses and quarantine officials, would be on the plane.
According to the government, currently there are 230 people slated for evacuation from the capital of Hubei Province, which has been locked down since Jan. 23 due to the coronavirus epidemic that has killed more than 1,000 people in China.
The third evacuation flight came a day after the Chinese government approved the charter flight retrieving Koreans and their spouses and children who hold Chinese passports.
"We received official approval for the flight last night," Kim said.
A government-chartered Korean Air flight flew to Wuhan twice late last month to extract 701 citizens, but the Chinese government was reluctant to allow their family members with Chinese nationality to leave the city to avoid negative sentiment from people there over "preferential treatment." As a result, some Koreans chose to stay in Wuhan.
The Korean consulate general in Wuhan had informed the Chinese evacuees of the need to prepare documents, such as marriage certificates, to verify their family status.
Upon arrival, they will be transported to the Korea Defense Language Institute in Icheon, Gyeonggi Province, 80 kilometers southeast of Seoul, and quarantined there for 14 days, the incubation period of the virus.
The first two batches of evacuees from Wuhan are temporarily staying at two other state-run facilities, one in Asan, South Chungcheong Province, and the other in Jincheon, North Chungcheong Province.
The evacuation plane also delivered face masks and medical supplies to provide to the consulate general in Wuhan and residents of the city.
According to the government, those who have not applied for the evacuation flight appear to have decided to stay in Wuhan due to their jobs, but it said there is no envisaged plan to send a fourth flight.
"At this point, we are not considering a fourth flight, but the government will decide depending on how the situation develops," a foreign ministry official said.
Meanwhile, the foreign ministry said a total of 16 people from Wuhan, who had been staying in Korea, returned home aboard the evacuation flight. They included the first confirmed patient here, a Chinese woman who entered Korea on Jan. 19 and tested positive the next day. She was released from hospital on Feb. 7 after making a full recovery, and has since expressed a wish to go back to Wuhan.
