Steeping up its efforts to bring home its natives, stranded in places that do not have rail connectivity, the Odisha government airlifted 180 migrant workers from the Andaman & Nicobar Islands on Monday.
The migrant workers flew from the Port Blair airport by a special Air Asia flight that landed at the Biju Patnaik International Airport in the city.
More than 600 people have so far been flown down from Jammu & Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Manipur, Nagaland and Tripura, the government said.
Government officials coordinated with the concerned States and Union Territories to complete COVID-19 formalities before bringing them to airports from different places.
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More than 5 lakh Odia migrant workers have so far returned to the State from different parts of the country. Of them, more than 3 lakh have returned by Shramik Special trains.
138 more cases
Meanwhile, 138 more COVID-19 cases were detected in different districts of Odisha, taking the State’s total to 2,994.
Of the new cases, 125 cases were detected in quarantine centres set up for returnees from other States, while the remaining 13 cases were local contacts, officials said.
The number of active cases stood at 990, while 1,993 had recovered and 11 had died — nine of COVID-19 and two due to other reasons, according to officials.
