Health

Jordan repatriates thousands of nationals stranded abroad

Amman, May 5 (efe-epa).- Jordan on Tuesday launched an operation to bring home more than 24,000 students and citizens stuck in other countries amid Covid-19 lockdowns.

A total of 160 Jordanians have landed in Queen Alia International Airport on board of the first flight coming from the Egyptian capital, Cairo.

Head of the Royal Medical Services Brig. Adel Wahadneh said in a statement that about 3,100 people were to be brought home aboard 16 flights as part of the operation’s three-day first stage.

“The people arriving will be subjected to a quarantine period of 17 days at 10 Red Sea hotels and 1,000 caravans deployed in the Dead Sea area for this purpose,” Wahadneh said.

“A total of 80 doctors and 18 clinics will take care of the passengers during their quarantine period,” he added.

He pointed out that the Jordanian army will increase the caravans to 4,000 at later stages.

About 6,000 students are expected to return to the country by 15 May, according to Director of the Coronavirus Crisis Operations Brig. Mazen al-Faraya.

In mid-March, Jordan brought home more than 5,000 citizens and foreigners before the authorities closed its airspace and borders with the rest of the world on 16 March as a precautionary measure to fight the coronavirus pandemic.

The coronavirus first came to light in China in December and has since been spreading around the world with nearly 3,606,038 confirmed cases in 187 countries and regions, and a death toll standing at 252, 151.

The World Health Organization earlier officially named the disease Covid-19, while the virus which causes it has been called SARS-CoV-2 (changed from its provisional name 2019-nCoV) by the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses.

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