COIMBATORE: The first repatriation flight to Coimbatore International Airport under the Vande Bharat Mission landed with 180 passengers including 20 pregnant women from Dubai (UAE) in the wee hours on Wednesday.
According to sources, almost 95 percent of the passengers, who reached Coimbatore in the Air India Express flight, belong to Tamil Nadu and the remaining were natives of Puducherry and Karnataka. The flight landed at Coimbatore airport at 12.20 am early Wednesday morning.
Health department officials said all passengers will be kept in paid quarantine and they will be sent to their homes, only if their swab test for COVID-19 came out negative.
It took six hours for the health department staff to take swab samples from the passengers and the results will be out soon.
According to G Ramesh Kumar, Deputy Director of Health Services, out of the 180 passengers who reached Coimbatore from Dubai on Wednesday morning, 20 were pregnant women.
"If the test result turns out to be negative for COVID-19, we will send them home, where they will be asked to be in home quarantine. If their result is positive for COVID-19, we will inform the concerned district health department to monitor them," he said.
"Though the test was carried out for all passengers in Dubai, we have been testing here based on the central government's SOP. All the passengers cooperated and gave samples. However, some of them hesitated to stay in paid quarantine citing financial constraints. But, we have pacified them and later they realised the need and staying in paid quarantine," he added.
Out of the 180 passengers, 101 are male and 79 are female.