Coronavirus: Egypt to operate last evacuation plane to Kuwait Thursday

CAIRO – 20 May 2020: The state’s flag carrier EgyptAir will operate its last exceptional flight to Kuwait on Thursday to bring back 300 stranded nationals, after repatriating a total of 6,300 Egyptians from Kuwait since the coronavirus crisis started, the Egyptian Embassy said.

As Egypt has halted international flights, in a bid to curb the spread of the novel virus, it has operated dozens of flights to repatriate its stranded citizens who are willing to return from different countries.

Since the crisis started, a total of 36 flights have brought back Egyptians from Kuwait, the embassy added in a statement on Wednesday.



The Civil Aviation Ministry has operated on Tuesday five flights to bring home Egyptians stranded in Gulf countries.

Three flights headed to Abu Dhabi while the destinations of the other two are Jeddah and Muscat. The latter flights landed in Marsa Alam in order for the passengers to be quarantined in hotels, while the other three flights landed in Cairo for quarantine.

On April 22nd, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi noted that around 3,500 Egyptians are stranded abroad over coronavirus, affirming that authorities are committed to bringing them back despite "hard circumstances".

This comes while Egypt saw a striking surge in coronavirus cases on Tuesday, as it has recorded 720 cases — 185 cases more than Monday. This brought the total number of cases in the northeastern African country to 13,484.

The ministry also reported 14 deaths due to the novel virus, bringing the total number to 659.

Also, the test results of 4275 people turned from positive to negative, the ministry said, including 3742 people who totally recovered. It added that 302 patients left hospitals.