200 Georgians in Italy to be brought home by charter flight and placed in 14-day quarantine

Two Georgian Airways planes have departed Rome to deliver 200 Georgian citizens who, for various reasons, were in Italy and could not return home due to quarantine issues.

The arrival of the first flight to Tbilisi is expected at 19:30.  All two hundred passengers will be quarantined. 

The flights were organized by the Georgian Ministry of Economy and Foreign Affairs; the expenses are fully paid by the government. 

As Georgian Airways CEO Roman Bokeria said, due to the fact that the airports in Italy are closed, getting permission for two flights at the Rome airport was “very problematic.”

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Georgia has registered 15 confirmed cases of the new coronavirus infection.  Two of them are Georgian citizens from Iran, while the others are Georgians who traveled in  Italy or had contacts with arrivals from this country. 

As of the morning of March 10, there were 30 patients in the Tbilisi Infectious Diseases Hospital. Among them, 14 people are infected with the coronavirus; the condition of one patient is serious.