The first set of Indian citizens trapped in the coronavirus-struck Wuhan will be evacuated today in an Air India special B747 flight that has departed from Delhi for Wuhan city in China's Hubei province a while ago.

A facility has been set up near Manesar, Haryana, to quarantine approximately 300 citizens who will be arriving in India and will be monitored for at least 14 days by a team of qualified doctors and staff members. The coronavirus death toll has risen to 213, with approximately 9000 confirmed cases globally, where 129 cases among them are outside mainland China, including India, Australia, France, Germany, the United States, and 16 other countries.

As the death toll and overall cases have been rising rapidly across the world, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared a global health emergency. "Our greatest concern is the potential for the virus to spread to countries with weaker health systems," a WHO chief reportedly said.