144 Indians stuck in Ukraine land at city airport

MOHALI: As many as 144 Indian nationals from the region, who were stuck in Ukraine following the outbreak of coronavirus, landed at the Chandigarh International Airport on an Air India flight early on Sunday.

The evacuation was part of Phase 2 of the Vande Bharat Mission of the Government of India.

As per the spokesperson of the airport, the aircraft landed at 3:12am with 144 passengers from various adjoining states—54 from Himachal Pradesh, 53 from Haryana, 34 from Punjab, two from Chandigarh and one from Rajasthan. All passengers were screened by Punjab health department and were handed over to respective states after immigration and customs clearances. Afterwards, all passengers were sent for quarantine as per protocol issued by their respective states who had arranged for their transportation.

District nodal officer Dr Harmandeep Kaur Brar said the passengers will not be sent home yet and will instead be quarantined at government facilities for 14 days. All passengers were asymptomatic, she added.