Kozhikode (Kerala), May 8 (PTI): An Air India repatriation flight from Riyadh landed at the Karipur airport here on Friday night, carrying153 passengers,including 84 pregnant women, 22 children and four infants.

The flight, the third to Kerala,touched down at around 8 p.m and was part of the Vande Bharat Mission which started on Thursday to bring home Indian nationals stranded due to COVID-19 lockdown in various countries.

Two flights had landed at Kochi and Kozhikode on Thursday from Abu Dhabi and Dubai respectively.

Another flight took off from Bahrain with 177 passengers and 5 infants and is expected to reach Kochi by 11.30 p.m tonight.

According to airport sources, the flight from Riyadh is carrying five persons having some health issues and they would soon be shifted toManjeri and Kozhikode medical college hospitals.

Ten passengers from neighbouring states of Karnataka and Tamil Nadu also travelled in the flight, the sources said.

The passengers were subjected to thermal test at the aerobridge itself before allowing them to undergo customs and immigration checks, sources said.

Official sources said all the passengers would be subjected to COVID-19 rapid test at the airport before transferring them to their respective destinations by special taxis and KSRTC buses.

As per the norms, all the pregnant women and children would be transported to their homes and others would be shifted to coronavirus care centres in their home districts.PTI CORR UD SS

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)