780 foreigners evacuated from Nepal, govt intensifies lockdown
A total of 10 passengers of the Ruby Princess Ship that arrived last month at NSW have died due to COVID-19 and it has been linked to 600 infected cases.
The Ruby Princess Ship is still docked in the waters off Sydney and 250 crew members are awaiting test results.
NSW Police Commissioner Mick Fuller said a criminal or coronial investigation will be necessary to determine whether the operators of the Ruby Princess were transparent about ill passengers on board.
He said the 10 deaths linked to the cruise ship so far were a "significant" number for one incident.
KATHMANDU: Around 780 foreign tourists, mostly from European countries, stranded in Nepal due to the Coronavirus pandemic, have been evacuated in special flights, as the government intensified the lockdown to curb the spread of the COVID-19.
The foreigners were evacuated in four different chartered flights arranged by different countries and their diplomatic missions in Nepal, according to officials.
The embassies of Germany, the US, Australia, France and other countries had reached out to the Nepal government for permission to evacuate their citizens from Nepal where a nation-wide lockdown has been imposed by the government to fight the Coronavirus outbreak.
The government granted permission to operate chartered flights at the request of the diplomatic missions.
Two special chartered flights by Qatar Airways took off from Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA) carrying 605 passengers. Of the total passengers, 159 were Germans and the rest were French, Europeans and nonEuropean nationals, according to an official at the Nepal Tourism Board.