Forty-six Malaysian nationals and nine citizens of her neighbouring countries have been repatriated from Iran today through the third Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief (HADR) mission following the COVID-19 outbreak.

The AirAsia flight chartered specifically for the mission initiated by the Malaysian government landed at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) at 6.34 am.

According to the National Disaster Management Agency (Nadma), eight of the foreign citizens on board the flight, which departed from Tehran, were from Singapore and the other one, from Indonesia.

Also on board were five staff of the Malaysian Ministry of Health (MOH), Ministry of Foreign Affairs (two), AirAsia crew members (16) and a Nadma officer.

All the 55 passengers had undergone health screening at the Air Disaster Unit at the KLIA before being ferried to the monitoring centre in Bandar Enstek, Nilai, Negeri Sembilan, where the will undergo a 14-day quarantine.

The decontamination operation on them was mounted by 240 personnel from various agencies, including the Fire and Rescue Department, MOH, Disaster ResQ, Nadma, Airport Fire and Rescue Service, KLIA District Police headquarters and the Aviation Security (AVSEC).

-- BERNAMA