The government of Bahrain saw its first flight take place as part of a clinically-managed programme to safely repatriate citizens from Iran following the suspension of air travel between the two countries.

Given the high rate of registered Covid-19 cases in Iran, the government’s ‘International Covid-19 Repatriation Programme’ (ICRP) is operating under vigorous containment protocols, and takes place outside normal procedures to ensure the cases are dealt with separately to current quarantine tracks.

All individuals part of the ICRP will be transferred from Iran under the supervision of specialist medical officials via a dedicated Ministry of Health chartered aircraft.

ICRP repatriated individuals are clinically segregated from the general population at a Specialist Repatriation Containment Facility, and will only be formally admitted to the country following a quarantine period and after testing negative for Covid-19.

The first phase of the ICRP completed today included the repatriation of 165 individuals from Iran, 77 of whom are confirmed to have tested positive for Covid-19. The ICRP-confirmed cases will now be processed accordingly.

To date, there are no registered community cases (local human-to-human transmission) in Bahrain, and the government will continue to take all necessary actions in line with WHO guidelines to protect the public from imported cases.