First ship brings back 700 Indians

KOCHI/MUMBAI/NEW DELHI: The first naval ship carrying nearly 700 Indian evacuees from Maldives arrived at Cochin Port on Sunday as another vessel reached Male, while about two dozen flights were operated by Air India on the fourth day of Vande Bharat Mission to bring back citizens stranded abroad due to the coronavirus lockdown.
A Port Trust statement said that 698 people evacuated from the Maldives arrived at 9:30 AM by ‘INS Jalashwa’ of the Indian Navy.
Among the passengers were 14 children below 10 years of age and 19 pregnant women. While 440 people were from Kerala, 187 were from Tamil Nadu and four from Delhi. The rest are from 17 other states and Union Territories. Concurrently, ‘INS Magar’ on Sunday reached Male, under the exercise christened Operation Samudra Setu, to bring nearly 200 more stranded Indian nationals from the Maldives, the Indian Navy said.
Passengers showing COVID-19 symptoms were disembarked first from ‘INS Jalashwa’, followed by others in small groups, district-wise, a Port Trust official said, adding the baggage was also disinfected. Customs and Immigration procedures were carried out inside the Terminal, where arrangements were made for distribution of SIM cards by BSNL and installation of Aarogya Setu in mobile phones of passengers, the official said.
Arrangements for onward travel to hospitals or institutional quarantine centres and home quarantine were ensured by the state government by deploying ambulances, state transport buses and taxis, the official said.
As many as 572 Indians reached Mumbai in two Air India flights from London and Singapore on Sunday morning. A total of 329 people who were stranded in the UK arrived in the first flight from the country. While passengers belonging to Mumbai were kept under mandatory institutional quarantine in hotels near the airport, those hailing from other cities were taken to their respective places where they will be kept in isolation in hotels taken over for the purpose, a Maharashtra government official said. (PTI)