Guwahati: Vande Bharat Mission flight repatriates 69 citizens stranded in Ukraine

Guwahati: Another repatriation flight carrying 69 passengers landed in Guwahati's Lokpriya Gopinath Bordoloi International (LGBI) Airport from Ukraine capital Kyiv as a part of the Indian Government's ambitious Vande Mataram mission.

According to officials, the Air India flight landed at the Guwahati Airport at 02:30 am, carrying 69 passengers from Kyiv to Guwahati.

This is the 3rd repatriation flight that has landed in Guwahati after the imposition of the nationwide curbs to mitigate the spread of the deadly coronavirus pandemic. After landing, the 67 persons were taken for screening and swab Testing at the Kiranshree Grand.

Yesterday, 37 Assam citizens landed at Borjhar around 1:30 am in the morning as a part of the Union Government's ambitious Vande Bharat Mission. After landing at the Lokpriya Gopinath Bordolai International (LGBI) airport, the returnees were made to register and were taken to quarantine centres as mandated by the state Health Department. Meanwhile, their swab samples have also been taken and the Covid-19 test results are awaited.

It may be recalled that on May 26, Assam Chief Secretary Kumar Sanjay Krishna had announced that four repatriation flights would land in Guwahati between May 27 to June 5. These international flights are from Ukraine, Moscow in Russia, Philippines, and Kuwait. The first of these flights -- one from Kuwait -- landed in Guwahati on May 29 carrying 155 passengers who were stuck after the outbreak of the contagion.

However, somewhat alarmingly, 30 of the Jazeera Airlines returnees tested for the pathogen and were among the 124 new Covid-19 cases reported from the state on Monday

With the detection of 47 fresh cases on Thursday, the number of Covid-19 cases in Assam rose to 1,877, with 1,457 cases active at the moment. While 413 patients were treated and released, 4 patients were not so lucky and succumbed to death.

India's tally of coronavirus cases has crossed the 2.16 lakh mark after a record number of 9,304 people tested positive for the deadly virus infection in the last 24 hours. The total cases in the country stood at 2,16,919, including 6,075 deaths, Union Health Ministry said.

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