Egypt’s Marsa Alam International Airport on Thursday evening received three flights carrying 364 Egyptians who had been stranded in the Netherlands, Bahrain and Morocco, part of a series of evacuation flights for Egyptians stranded abroad in several Arab and foreign countries.
According to an official statement, all passengers have been quarantined in hotels and resorts in Marsa Alam, and will remain there for a period of 14 days.
The statement also said that a number of buses had been allocated for transporting the travelers to hotels in small groups, part of the precautionary measures taken by the Ministries of Foreign Affairs, Immigration and Civil Aviation to combat the novel coronavirus COVID-19.
President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi has ordered the Tahya Misr Fund (Long Live Egypt Fund) to pay for the costs of quarantine for Egyptian returnees staying in hotels across the country, Minister of State for Media Osama Heikal said.
Egyptian expatriates wishing to return must sign a statement promising that upon arriving back in Egypt they understand that they will be quarantined for 14 days in a place to be determined by the Health Ministry, Cabinet Spokesperson Nader Saad said in March.
Anyone refusing to sign the statement will be barred from boarding a flight back to Egypt, he added.
Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm
