Saudi family with Covid-19 repatriated from India on medical flight

The family landed at Riyadh’s King Salman Air Base on Monday evening

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A Saudi family infected with Covid-19 and living in India was repatriated on Monday on a medical flight.

The operation was requested by King Salman on Monday and carried out by the Ministry of Defence’s Air Medical Evacuation Department.

Photos taken at King Salman Air Base in Riyadh showed ambulances waiting by the runway to receive the family. They left the plane in individual pods to prevent the spread of the disease.

The flight took 15 hours, the Saudi Press Agency reported. No members of the crew or medical staff was infected during or since the flight.

Saudi Arabia has transported at least 74 people critically ill with Covid-19 using medical evacuation planes.

So far, 433,980 people have contracted the coronavirus in Saudi Arabia, including 886 new cases on Monday.

Twelve new deaths brought the toll to 7,174, with a total of 418,914 recoveries.

The kingdom has administered more than 11.7 million Covid-19 vaccines.