The ongoing COVID-19 Novel Corona Virus Pandemic has caused most countries to close their borders and there is literally very less or no means to travel for people. The sudden lockdown has meant that many people of different nationalities have gotten stranded in foreign lands without any mode of transport to return to their home countries! The Central Government had recently announced that they would be using unscheduled commercial flights and Naval ships to help Indians stranded in foreign nations to return home! Many flights from different countries have already been bringing back Indians and now, the first Naval ship INS Jalashwa has returned to Kochi, bearing Indians stranded in the Maldives, under the Vande Bharat Mission!

A report states that the INS Jalashwa has helped 698 Indians who were stranded in the Maldives to return home. The ship docked at the Cochin Port, in Ernakulam, today morning! The passengers include 595 males and 103 females, of which 14 are children below the age of 10 and 19 are pregnant women. Most of these passengers are said to be from either Kerala or Tamil Nadu but people from 18 other Indian States & Union Territories are also a part of this returning group! Passengers showing symptoms of COVID-19 were allowed to disembark first, to conduct further tests, following which the remaining people were allowed to disembark. The Port Health Organization carried out thermal screening on all passengers and all of them were given BSNL Sim Cards on arrival and asked to use them to download and install the Aarogya Setu app, immediately. The Tamil Nadu government had arranged for people of its region to return home using 7 Government buses and will be placed on quarantine, on their return here! Stay tuned for updates...