New Delhi, May 9 (IANS): Indian Navy Ship (INS) Jalashwa sailed out from Male for Kochi on Friday night with 698 citizens stranded in the Maldives due to lockdown imposed to contain spreading of the deadly coronavirus.

The evacuation of Indian nationals from various countries is part of Samudra Setu programme initiated by Indian Navy.

Out of 698 Indian citizens, 595 are male and 103 are female, including 19 pregnant women. The Navy medical teams are constantly taking care of them.

The ship reached Male port on Thursday.

Before the passengers embarked, the ship was completely sanitised and thereafter all the stranded citizens were thoroughly medically checked. Their baggage were sanitised the port itself.

Indian Navy was tasked to evacuate stranded Indian nationals from the Maldives as part of phase one commencing May 8. Indian Naval Ships Jalashwa and Magar headed to Male on May 5.

A total of 14 ships have been kept ready to bring stranded citizens from Gulf countries and out of them, two sailed out early on May 5 .

These ships have made arrangements as per the standard protocol laid out to deal with suspected Covid people like social distancing and sanitisation. Indian Navy has removed non-essential equipment from the vessels in order to accommodate the evacuees.

Further, INS Shardul attached to Southern Naval Command has also been engaged and it is to bring stranded citizens from Dubai.

Besides, naval ships also have sailed with food grains, medical teams, and medicines to Indian Ocean Region (IOR) countries and they will evacuate Indians during return journey.

INS Kesari has proceeded on deployment to the southern Indian Ocean Region from May 6 till June 29. The ship will visit Madagascar, Comoros, the Maldives and Seychelles, and deliver 10-12 tonnes of medicines each to all these countries.

It will also provide 660 tonnes of food grains to the Maldives. Medical teams comprising of 14 personnel (eight doctors and six paramedics) and 13 personnel (four doctors and nine paramedics) have been dispatched to Mauritius and Comoros respectively.

INS Magar has also sailed to Maldives and is on the way to Male.

The INS Airawat and INS Shardul are likely to proceed to Gulf region for the evacuation of Indian nationals.

The Indian Navy has carried out similar evacuation operations from overseas on earlier occasions, as part of Operation Sukoon, from Lebonon, in 2006 and Operation Rahat, in Yemen, in 2015.