Maldivian government on Monday announced that two additional flights will operate during the week to repatriate foreigners stranded in the country due to travel restrictions imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic.
According to Ministry of Tourism, a Russian airliner, Rossiya Airlines is scheduled to depart Maldives on April 29, Wednesday, while a scheduled Air Cairo flight will leave Maldives on April 30, Thursday. Both flights will depart from the main Velana International Airport with tourists and expatriate workers wishing to return to their home countries.
All passengers flying onboard the Rossiya Airlines and Cairo Air flights are requested to contact their resort, guesthouse, or island council to make the necessary arrangements to reach the airport.
As per lockdown directives, Maldives Police Service (MPS) will only permit vehicles and vessels carrying passengers with confirmed tickets and officials documents with them.
For queries, passengers can contact the tourism ministry hotlines 7223131 or 7802949 or via their email: [email protected].
In a bid to contain the spread of COVID-19 in the country, the Maldivian government on March 27 stopped issuing on-arrival-visas and closed its borders, effectively leaving several stranded in the island nation.
The government has since operated special scheduled flights to undertake the repatriation work of returning tourists and expatriate workers to their home countries.
Maldives Immigration announced on Friday that a total of 701 foreign nationals were granted clearance for outbound travel on repatriation flights to Italy, Indonesia, and the Philippines on April 24 and April 25. Most of the passengers were expatriate workers, the border control authority added.
Minister of Tourism Ali Waheed on April 10 revealed that 938 tourists remained in the country in some 27 resorts across the country, with approximately 200 or so unable to leave the country due to global travel restrictions over the COVID-19 pandemic.
Tourism ministry last week arranged Qatar Airways to operate a special flight from Malé on April 21, for outbound travel to London, Paris, and Frankfurt, to repatriate some of the tourists and expatriate workers in the Maldives.
Maldives has recorded a significant increase in COVID-19 cases since its first confirmed case within the capital city of Male' on April 15 involving a local woman that sought assistance from a flu clinic in Malé after developing symptoms.
Presently Maldives records 214 positive cases, two probable and 198 active cases of COVID-19, with a total of 17 recoveries.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has classified the spread of COVID-19 as a global pandemic. The novel coronavirus has infected approximately 3 million people and claimed over 207,000 lives around the world. However, out of those infected, more than 881,000 people have recovered.
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