Kozhikode (Kerala) May 8 (IANS): The first evacuation flight from Riyadh in Saudi Arabia carring 153 passengers landed here at 8.05 pm on Friday.

The passengers include 10 from Karnataka and Tamil Nadu and the rest from various districts of Kerala.

Since pregnant women and other categories get preference, the third flight to land in Kerala since Thursday had 89 pregnant ladies, 22 kids, and three persons above the age of 70.

On Thursday, a flight landed here from Dubai with 182 passengers.

The aircraft are part of the evacuation undertaken by the central government to bring back Indians stranded in foreign lands due to the coronavirus lockdown.

The Kozhikode airport was under tight security since morning and all health protocols were observed in view of the Covid-19 situation.

All baggage of passengers will be disinfected before these are handed out to owners.

Pregnant women, those above 70 and children below 10 will be sent to their respective homes for quarantine for 14 days. Passengers with underlying health issues will be moved to hospitals for further treatment.

The remaining will be moved to corona care centres in their respective districts while those showing Covid-like symptoms would be taken to coronavirus dedicated hospitals here.

The 10 passengers from Karnataka and Tamil Nadu will be quarantined in the state-run corona care centres.

Around 11 pm, the fourth evacuation flight from Bahrain will land at Kochi.