KOCHI: With three more flights carrying 537 passengers touching down at Cochin Airport on Saturday night, the total number of expats evacuated from Covid affected Gulf countries, as part of Vande Bharat Mission, touched 1,222. The Muscat-Kochi flight was the first to land at Kochi Airport with 177 passengers on Saturday at 8.50 pm. Among the passengers were 48 pregnant women and four infants. The Kuwait-Kochi flight landed with 177 passengers at 9.15 pm. Meanwhile, the Doha - Kochi flight which had not yet landed at the time of filing the story, is expected to bring in 183 passengers.
So far, seven flights were used to carry 1,222 expats who touched down at Cochin and Calicut airports. “
With more people coming from overseas we have taken all the measures to monitor them. If anyone shows any symptoms of the virus, they will be put under hospital isolation and the rest will be sent to institutional quarantine. As per the directive of the state government, only pregnant women and kids are exempted from institutional quarantine,” said K Kuttappan, DMO Ernakulam.
More than one lakh NRIs from the state registered on the NORKA website to come back from different countries. Nearly 900 expats are expected to reach the state on Sunday. Meanwhile, the 698 expatriates from Male will reach Kochi on an Indian Navy vessel. The rest will arrive at Thiruvananthapuram from Doha.