Additional Secretary to the President for Foreign Relations Admiral Prof. Jayanath Colombage yesterday (10) said there will be a temporary halt in expatriating Lankans stranded aboard due to the current situation in the Kandakadu Treatment and Rehabilitation Centre.
“So far 14,750 Lankans have returned from 65 counties and more are expected to return but operations will be halted till the situation is sorted out,” Admiral Colambage said.
Meanwhile, yesterday morning three chartered SriLankan Airlines returned to the country. The flight from Dubai UL 226 had 276 passengers, while UL 1206 repatriated 266 passengers from Moscow and the flight from London (UL 508) brought back 187 passengers.
All the passengers and flight crew were subjected to PCR tests and later sent to nearby quarantine centres until test results were out.