Egypt Operates Exceptional Flight to Return Stranded Citizens in Kuwait

On Thursday, the state-owned EgyptAir Company is set to operate an exceptional flight to return the stranded Egyptians in Kuwait, which has recently announced the suspension of flights to Egypt's airports till April 15 in order to curb the coronavirus outbreak.

According to well-informed sources, it is scheduled that the EgyptAir's flight will bring back 300 stranded Egyptians on board from Kuwait.

This comes within the state's plan to return, wishing to return from abroad following coordination among the ministries of aviation, immigration and foreign affairs.

It is noteworthy that Egypt evacuated 1,500 Egyptians stranded in Kuwait. The decision to operate these exceptional flights came as part of the Egyptian government's plan to evacuate Egyptians abroad after flights were suspended due to coronavirus.

The flights were operated in coordination between the Kuwaiti authorities, the Egyptian Embassy in Kuwait and the Egyptian flag carrier EgyptAir.

Upon the arrival of the fifth flights, quarantine doctors at the airport subjected all the passengers to medical examination, measured their temperatures and took a blood sample for analysis, the sources added.

Egypt’s Civil Aviation Ministry, in cooperation with the relevant ministries, is intensifying its efforts to coordinate the return of the stranded Egyptians in many countries abroad, due to the decision to suspend flights to Egyptian airports to fight the spread of coronavirus.

Egypt’s flight suspension was originally set to last until March 31, but was extended this week through April 15.

The nation has also imposed a two-week nationwide curfew from 7 pm until 6 am beginning on Wednesday, March 25 and has extended school closures an additional two weeks to fight the spread of coronavirus.

On Wednesday, Egypt announced 69 new coronavirus cases were detected, all of them are Egyptians, some of them were in contact with other positive cases and the others were abroad.

“This upped the total number of confirmed cases to 779” Khaled Megahed, the ministry’s spokesman said in a statement.

Six more deaths were confirmed; raising the total number to 52.