Sri Lanka thanks India for evacuating its nationals on board coronavirus-hit ship

Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa on Thursday thanked India for evacuating two Sri Lankans on board a coronavirus-hit cruise ship docked off Yokohama in Japan. An Air India flight on Thursday brought back 119 Indians.

The foreigners who were also evacuated along with the Indian nationals included two from Sri Lanka and one each from Nepal, South Africa and Peru. Rajapaksa in a statement said the acting Indian High Commissioner in Colombo informed him that two Sri Lankans on board the Diamond Princess ship were flown out of Tokyo and arrived safely in Delhi.

"My heartfelt gratitude to Prime Minister (Narendra Modi), the government of India...for facilitating the evacuation," the statement said. They were among the 3,711 people on board the Diamond Princess ship when it docked at the Yokohama port, near Tokyo, on February 3.

The ship was quarantined after a passenger who disembarked last month in Hong Kong was found to be the carrier of the disease.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)