Special flight repatriates 270 UK nationals from Amritsar airport amid COVID-19 lockdown

Around 270 United Kingdom (UK) nationals left for their country in a special Qatar Airways flight from Sri Guru Ram Dass Jee International Airport in Amritsar on Sunday amid the nationwide Coronavirus lockdown. The special flight was scheduled to take off at 2:15 AM from Amritsar.

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Around 11,000 UK nationals have been repatriated so far around the world out of which 5500 are from Punjab, Davinder Singh, Volunteer, British High Commission told ANI.

"Around 11,000 UK nationals have been repatriated so far around the world out of which 5500 are from Punjab. In the coming days as well UK nationals will be sent back. We would like to thank the Government of India and Airways authorities", Singh said.

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UK nationals express gratitude

UK nationals here expressed their gratitude to the Indian citizens and Government of India for helping them while they were stranded here due to coronavirus-induced lockdown before the flight took off.

"We came here on March 9 for 2 weeks but our flight was cancelled due to lockdown. We were unable to move out of our house for six weeks. People should obey the lockdown norms," said Gurbaksh Kaur, UK national.

Another UK national, Rajinder Singh told ANI, "We came here on February 29 for two weeks but later we were stranded here amid lockdown. We did face many problems but people of Punjab supported us and loved us during this crisis."

Another special flight airlifted 271 UK nationals from Amritsar yesterday.

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COVID-19 situation in India

Over 10,000 patients have recovered from COVID-19 in India as of Saturday, indicating progress in the nation's fight against the pandemic. As per the latest data released by the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, 2,411 new cases were reported in the last 24 hours taking the tally to 37,776.

Of the total number, 26,535 are active positive cases. As many as 10,018 patients have recovered from the disease, while 1,223 COVID-19 deaths have been reported to date. Of these, 71 deaths were reported in the last 24 hours.

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(With inputs from agency)