First flights land in Kerala with UAE 363

Passengers arriving in Kochi and Kozhikode in Kerala have been quarantined. In the picture: a passenger at Cochin airport arriving from Abu Dhabi. (Source: PRD, Gov Kerala)

India launched one of its biggest evacuation exercises on Thursday, bringing back the first group of expatriates stranded abroad amid the closure of COVID-19. At 10:20 pm, an Air India Express flight from Abu Dhabi landed at Kerala International Airport in Kochi with 177 passengers and four children.

Minutes later, at Kozhikode Airport in North Kerala, another flight landed from Dubai with 177 passengers and five children.

India had previously announced that as part of Phase 1 of an evacuation plan titled “Vande Bharat Mission”, 64 flights and three Navy ships would be operated to bring home nearly 15,000 Indians stranded abroad.

On Thursday, passengers who landed in Kochi and Kozhikode arrived home with an unusual welcome. Instead of the crowds of family members crowding the arrivals gate, they were greeted by officials and health workers who were standing in personal protective equipment at the disinfected terminal.

Explained: How well is Kerala prepared to receive its expatriates?

Passengers were driven in batches to a triage area, where they underwent mandatory health screenings. The symptomatic will move to Covid hospitals, while the asymptomatic will move to institutional quarantine centers for 14 days in their home districts.

However, pregnant women, the elderly, children under the age of 10 and the unwell have been allowed to travel to their homes, where they must remain under strict house quarantine. There were around 60 pregnant women on the first two flights.

Airport authorities said the luggage will be released to passengers only after strict disinfection procedures: a spray of sodium hypochlorite, followed by exposure to ultraviolet rays as the luggage passes through two tunnels. The ultraviolet disinfection system, developed by DRDO, was recently installed at Kochi airport.

Passengers arrive from Abu Dhabi at Kochi International Airport on Thursday night. Courtesy: Air India Express

After passengers collect their luggage, they will be grouped according to their home districts, before being taken to quarantine centers on special buses.

Earlier in the day, the state’s health minister, K K Shailaja, said there are only 25 active cases of coronavirus in the state, with three people from Kannur and two from the Kasaragod districts declared free of the virus.

READ | 14 flights in one week: Delhi airport prepares for more than 3,600 evacuees

According to the Health Department, the number of hotspots fell from a high of about 100 two weeks ago to 33. On Thursday alone, 56 local bodies were removed from the hotspot list.

Of the total of 502 confirmed coronavirus cases reported in the state so far, only five have been reported since May 1. Most of the recent cases reported in the state in the past few days were from people with a history of travel from areas affected by the coronavirus from other states, particularly Tamil Nadu, they were informed.

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