KUWAIT: 611 expatriates returned to their home countries from Kuwait. - KUNA photos

KUWAIT: The interior ministry said 306 citizens returned home yesterday as part of a plan to bring back nationals from abroad due to spread of coronavirus, while 611 expatriates and Gulf nationals left for their home countries. Three planes carrying a total of 306 Kuwaiti citizens coming from Lebanon, Egypt and Bahrain - three nations with coronavirus cases - arrived at Kuwait International Airport on Wednesday, as part of the first phase of a plan due to end on Sunday, March 29, the ministry said in a statement.

It added 195 Kuwaitis came from Egypt, 74 from Lebanon and 37 from Bahrain. They were all tested at airport facilities specially erected for this purpose and then taken to compulsory quarantine. The ministry meanwhile said 611 non-Kuwaitis left for their home countries after they completed preventive measures. It said 342 Egyptians, 254 Filipinos and 15 Bahraini nationals were onboard planes that took them back to their countries.

The squad of the National Guard securing quarantine sites received on Wednesday the citizens who were flown back from Lebanon, Egypt and Bahrain. The Guard said in a statement that the repatriated citizens were quarantined at Joan and Seashell resorts and will remain at the secured locations to ensure they are free of the coronavirus. A number of senior officers were present upon arrival of the returned citizens.

Two Kuwait Airways planes were to bring citizens from Germany and Britain yesterday, part of a government plan to bring nationals from countries infected with the coronavirus, Directorate General for Civil Aviation (DGCA) said Wednesday. It added in a statement a plane was scheduled to arrive from Frankfurt at 5:00 pm, and another from London at around 8:05 pm. - KUNA