Serbians evacuated from Wuhan: Difficult undertaking, but none of the four are infected

On Sunday, after a 12 hour-flight, they arrived at the military base of Istres in the south of France

Four Serbian citizens - Stefan Vojnic from Belgrade, Aleksandar Kalaba from Zrenjanin, and Nenad Neskovic and Dusan Djelic from Arandjelovac - were on February 2 successfully evacuated from the Chinese city of Wuhan, the epicenter of coronavirus.

The route

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On Sunday, after a 12 hour-flight, they arrived at the military base of Istres in the south of France. There were a total of 245 passengers aboard a plane of the Maltese charter company Hi Fly in which four Serbians traveled, of which 50 children, 65 French and as many as 180 citizens from 30 other countries.

Most of them, like Vujic, Kalaba, Neskovic and Djelic, will stay at the School for Fire Officers near Marseilles, where they will spend 14 days. They will not be able to leave the area secured by the special forces.

No one, except for the competent French services, not even diplomatic representatives were allowed to welcome the travelers arriving from Wuhan. No direct contact with the Serbian citizens will be allowed during the isolation period.

The evacuation timeline

It took 12 hours for the Wuhan-Marseille flight to complete.

00:20 (February 1, Saturday) Maltese charter company Hi Fly's Airbus A380 departs from the Charles de Gaulle airport near Paris

12:30 The airplane lands in Hanoi, the capital of Vietnam, for crew to rest and refuel

16:00 The plane leaves for Wuhan

18:30 The Airbus A380 lands in Wuhan

19:30-02:00 (February 2, Sunday) Passenger check-in and boarding

02:36 The airplane departs for France

14:30 A total of 245 passengers were aboard the plane when it landed the military base Istres near Marseilles

The base they are accommodated in

The temporary home for the four Serbians will be a large complex of the School of Fire Officers in a town not far from Marseille, where painter Paul Cezanne was born. But the Serbians will not be able to enjoy that tourist spot for the next 14 days. Their movement will be limited to the 30,000-square-foot complex built on the site of a former military base.

Within the complex are six facilities with 525 rooms, including restaurants, rest and leisure rooms, a gym and coffee shops that would otherwise be used by future firefighters during their training. The complex has already been emptied, while those evacuated yesterday were met by French Health Minister Agnes Buzyn.

Ambassador Bo: Chinese in Serbia respect all measures

Chinese Ambassador to Serbia Chen Bo pointed out that Chinese citizens living in Serbia respect all measures imposed by the Serbian side to control the virus. She pointed out that the Chinese embassy issued a timely health instruction, demanding that the measures prescribed by Serbia be complied with.

"Even some Chinese who have just returned from China after the holidays are takin some extra preventative measures, staying at home, not going to work and minimizing contact with people for the first 14 days. You know that's the hardest period," Chen Bo said, adding:

"Among the Chinese who live, work and study here there aren't many from Wuhan."

A difficult undertaking

Serbian Foreign Minister Ivica Dacic says this was not an easy undertaking, adding that what is most important is that all our citizens are healthy and free of coronavirus.

"It's an extremely complicated evacuation process. It was supposed to start around 10 pm last night, but it was only at 2.30 am our time that they departed on a French plane to the Istres military base. Everything was agreed on with the French, this concerned four Serbian citizens, not three, because in the meantime another man who was 165 kilometers away from Wuhan appeared who had tried to arrange his trip back home and failed, so he requested the help of our embassy," Dacic said.

According to him, the Serbians who just arrived back in Europe do not have coronavirus.

"What's most important is that they have undergone all health checks prior to boarding the aircraft and do not have coronavirus, but the 14-day quarantine is one of the preventive measures. We could have taken them over and kept them in quarantine here as well, but European countries generally decided to keep their evacuees in France," Dacic said, stressing that no Serbian citizens have been infected with coronavirus.

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(Telegraf.rs/Informer)