By Jung Da-min
A chartered flight arranged by the government has brought 80 people from Iran to Korea due to the worsening situation of the COVID-19 spread there.
Seventy-four Koreans and six Iranian family members arrived at Incheon International Airport Thursday afternoon on an Asiana Airlines plane, according to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Earlier on Tuesday night, the Asiana plane headed to Al Maktoum International Airport in Dubai as the Korean carrier could not directly fly to Tehran due to U.S. sanctions against Iran. The plane arrived in Dubai Wednesday morning and the 80 evacuees arrived there later in the day by an Iranian plane from Imam Khomeini International Airport to transfer to the Korean carrier’s plane.
A team comprised of officials from the foreign ministry, a doctor, a nurse and two quarantine officers accompanied them on their way back home, to ascertain the individuals’ health conditions.
“There are about 200 people including Koreans and their family members with other citizenship. There are 80 people coming and around 100 people will remain there or in nearby areas,”a ministry official told reporters, Wednesday.
The 80 people will spend about two days at the Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA) International Cooperation Center located in Seongnam, Gyeonggi Province, for the coronavirus tests. If they test negative, they will be sent home for 14-day self-quarantine.
The evacuees will not be quarantined at a government-designated facilities for two weeks as were those arriving from Wuhan, China, the epicenter of the pandemic, as the health authorities believe the possibility of infection in Iran are not as grave as Wuhan.
But still, the situation of COVID-19 spread has been worsening in Iran, with the number of deaths from the virus exceeding 1,130 as of Wednesday (local time). The number of confirmed patients rose over 17,300 while the mortality rate is about 15 percent. Seoul had been in talks with Tehran to arrange an evacuation flight to bring back its citizens via a nearby third country.
Besides Iran, an increasing number of Koreans have been stranded abroad due to international border closures. About 177 Korean travelers have been stranded in Peru, and 56 officials of KOICA and 14 Korean residents and travelers in Ecuador.
But the government is not considering sending a charter flight to those countries yet. In the case of Italy, where more than 35,700 cases were confirmed along with nearly 3,000 deaths as of Wednesday, about 500 Koreans are hoping to come to Korea, according to Korean associations there. The associations are in talks with Korean Air to charter a plane, according to the foreign ministry.
