CAIRO (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 30th March, 2020) More than 2,000 citizens of Russia and Commonwealth of Independent States nations have been evacuated from the Egyptian resorts of Sharm El-Sheikh and Hurghada since Thursday as part of efforts to repatriate citizens during the COVID-19 global pandemic, the head of the consular department of the Russian Embassy in Cairo Yusup Abakarov told Sputnik.
The Russian embassy began organizing evacuation flights from the two Egyptian resort cities in conjunction with Belarus' Belavia Airlines on Thursday.
"In total, 1,089 people departed from Hurghada in this time [since Thursday]," Abakarov stated, adding that a total of 2,001 people were evacuated from both resorts.
The consular official stated that a flight with 134 passengers, including four children, departed Sharm El-Sheikh on Sunday bound for Moscow. Additionally, two flights from Hurghada carrying a total of 340 people left for Moscow on the same day.
"We have completed flights from Hurghada and Sharm El-Sheikh. Now we will organize flights from Cairo. More than 350 people have gathered in the capital, and we are resolving this issue," Abakarov stated.
As of Sunday, Egypt's Health Ministry has recorded 609 cases of COVID-19 in the country since the start of the outbreak, resulting in 40 deaths.
A two-week nationwide curfew from 19:00-06:00 local time [18:00-05:00 GMT] entered into force on Thursday, and international air travel has been suspended until April 15.
