First flight with 177 stranded Indians from Dubai lands in Mangaluru

Mangaluru: The first repatriation flight to Mangaluru from Dubai with 177 passengers landed at the international airport here, carrying among others, 38 pregnant women and 12 medical emergency cases.

The total passengers, including 88 men, 84 women, five children and two infants arrived by the Air India Express flight IX 384 late Tuesday night, airport sources said.

There were 12 medical emergency cases and 38 pregnant women among them, they said.

The district administration had made arrangements for receiving the passengers, who were provided with sanitizers and masks. They were advised to maintain social distancing as per the health protocol.

All the foreign returnees were screened as per the standard operating procedure to ensure that they were asymptomatic.

The passengers were taken to their chosen place of accommodation in KSRTC buses.

They will be undergoing a 14-day quarantine in the places, which will be monitored by doctors assigned by the health department. More than 17 hotels and 12 hostels have been arranged for the accommodation of the returnees.

Passengers were also asked to download the mandatory 'Aroygya Setu' app for contact tracing.

Rahul Shinde, IAS, who is in charge of arranging quarantine facilities, airport director V V Rao and district health officer Ramachandra Bairy were present at the airport.

Indian citizens stranded abroad due to the lockdown triggered by coronavirus are being ferried by the government of India in its biggest ever off-shore evacuation drive under the 'Vande Bharat' Mission.