Two flights from the Gulf countries Saudi Arabia and Kuwait brought 339 passengers to Kerala on Wednesday, on the final day of the first phase of India's massive repatriation drive dubbed Vande Bharat Mission.
An Air India flight from Jeddah in Saudi Arabia reached the Calicut International Airport with 147 passengers at 1:15pm on Wednesday.
Earlier, another flight from Kuwait to Kozhikode carrying 192 passengers, including 7 infants, landed at the Kozhikode airport at 10pm.
A thermal face detection camera installed at the airports screen all passengers. Those passengers who show symptoms of COVID-19 will be shifted to the nearest COVID-designated hospital. The others will be moved to quarantine centres.
Pregnant women and children would be sent for home quarantine.
Over 500 Keralites repatriated on Tuesday
On Tuesday, three flights brought 650 Keralites home. An Air India flight from Dubai carrying 182 passengers reached Kannur at 7:24pm on Tuesday. This is the first flight to arrive in Kannur. Another flight from Dammam in Saudi Arabia reached the Cochin International Airport at 8:15pm with 156 passengers.
A flight from Singapore, whose original destination was Bengaluru, which extended its service to Kochi landed at 10:47pm. The flight brought 131 passengers to Kochi while 45 deboarded at Bengaluru.
In the wee hours of Wednesday, the Doha-Thiruvananthapuram flight, initially scheduled for Sunday and later rescheduled, landed at Thiruvananthapuram at 12:40am with 181 passengers.
Over 8,500 Indians have already returned to India as part of phase I of the Vande Bharat Mission.
The next phase of the Vande Bharat mission will begin on May 16 and end on May 22. Out of the 149 repatriation flights under phase II, 31 would come to Kerala.
