Cairo International Airport in Egypt is expected to receive 23 special international flights carrying Egyptians stranded abroad amid the coronavirus pandemic on Friday.
According to state-run Ahram Online news website, the flights, with a total of 3,346 Egyptians, would arrive from Britain , Russia, Germany, Kenya , Tanzania, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Lebanon and more.
The airport will also receive four domestic flights from Marsa Alam’s Red Sea resort city after the end of the quarantine period of around 400 Egyptian returnees from abroad, sources quoted by Ahram Online at Cairo International Airport as saying.
On 19 March Egypt suspended international flights to curb COVID-19 spread. Several thousand Egyptians have since returned from all over the world , including the United States, Great Britain, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Turkey, Uganda , Rwanda, Chad and Niger.
On 14 February, Egypt announced its first confirmed COVID-19 case and on 8 March, both foreigners, the first death from the highly infectious virus.
Until Thursday night, total confirmed cases of coronavirus in Egypt had reached 29,767, including 1,126 deaths and 7,756 recoveries.
The Egyptian government has been imposing a night-time curfew, which ranged from nine to 13 hours, to curb the spread of the virus since 25 March.
The current nine-hour curfew will continue until mid-June, when the government will consider relieving relevant restrictions in the midst of a plan for coexistence to maintain precautionary measures against coronavirus while resuming economic activity.
The Egyptian government has begun a gradual reopening of facilities and offices, enabling the reopening of approximately 100 hotels for local visitors with a capacity of 50 percent after obtaining official certificates of hygiene safety.