Vande Bharat Mission: Air India flies 177 Indians back home to Mangaluru from Dubai

The returnees have been undergoing a 14-day quarantine at locations monitored by doctors assigned by the health department. More than 17 hotels and 12 hostels have been arranged for accommodation of the returnees.
 

The first flight to repatriate 177 citizens stranded in Dubai due to the coronavirus pandemic arrived in Mangaluru on May 12 night.
 

The total number of 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 sanitisers and masks.

The Air India flight left Dubai at 16:10 and landed in Mangaluru at 21:10. All the foreign returnees were screened as per the standard operating procedure to ensure that they were asymptomatic.
 

The flight, which was originally scheduled to reach on May 14, was rescheduled after constant persuasion from non-resident Indians.
 

The centre has made arrangements for two flights to bring back Indians stranded in Gulf countries to Karnataka.

The date of the operation of another flight from Doha to Bengaluru will be announced soon. Meanwhile, the second flight from Dubai will land in Bengaluru on May 15.