The government of Italy has arranged a number of flights to the Maldives to evacuate Italians stranded in the island nation as the country combats the Novel Coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic.

The reveal was made by the government’s spokesperson for all things Covid-19, Mabrook Aziz via a press conference on Friday night.

The first aircraft is to have arrived on Friday on which 358 Italian nationals were evacuated.

This includes 12 tourists and three Italian crew on-board Island Safari 1, where two confirmed cases emerged earlier this month.

Mabrook revealed that two of the passengers on-board the flight had tested positive to the disease and that the government received their test results, after the flight departed from Velana International Airport (VIA).

However, none of the passengers on-board the flight were symptomatic to the disease as the flight departed, despite two of them testing positive, said Mabrook. The two Italians who tested positive to the fatal virus are contact of the two positive cases discovered on Island Safari 1.

There are two more Italian tourists in isolation at Vilivaru and 11 crew members excluding the two crew members still on-board the safari, they are scheduled to depart on a separate flight.

Two individuals on-board Island Safari 1 tested positive to Covid-19 on 15 March, the following day they were evacuated from the boat and are currently in Farukolhufushi. The safari docked at Vilivaru on 17 March and the tourists as well as the crew on-board the vessel were isolated at the isolation facility on the island. Since then, the safari is under monitoring.

The spokesperson went on to reveal that 76 Maldivians have arrived in the Maldives up until Friday and one person arrived on employment visa.

In addition, Mabrook revealed that the government is still awaiting an update and verification on the case of a Maldivian national testing positive to Covid-19 in the United Arab Emirates.

The Foreign Ministry is working tirelessly to verify this information, said Mabrook.