health

Covid-19: Plane evacuating Nigerians returns to Dubai after woman gives birth mid-air

Published

May 6, 2020

One of the Nigerian women repatriated from the United Arab Emirates was reportedly delivered of a baby in mid-air, a report said on Wednesday.

Quoting the Chairman, Nigerians in Diaspora Commission [NIDCOM], Abike Dabiri-Erewa, Punch Online reported that both the mother and child are well.

The medium said the Dabiri-Erewa did not reveal the gender of the child.

WuzupNigeria reports that 265 Nigerians were repatriated to the country after indicating interest to return from the Arab nation due to the rampaging coronavirus [Covid-19] pandemic.

The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Geoffrey Onyeama, said the returnees would be quarantined and monitored for 14 days in “accordance with Nigeria Centre for Disease Control guidelines”.

“In this regard, Emirates Airlines is scheduled to evacuate the first batch of 265 Nigerians from Dubai, United Arab Emirates and they will arrive at 3:00 pm on Wednesday, 6th May 2020 at the Murtala Mohammed International Airport, Ikeja, Lagos.

“Arrangements for hotel accommodation in Lagos and Abuja have been made for the evacuation process,” Onyeama had said in a statement through the ministry’s spokesperson, Ferdinand Nwonye

Punch Online, however, reported that though the evacuation flight left Dubai for Lagos at 10 am and all the passengers were tested and found to be COVID-19-free, the plane had to return to Dubai after the woman gave birth an hour into the flight.

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The paper said,

According to the source, a woman, however, gave birth an hour into the about eight hours trip and the pilots had to return the plane to Dubai to disembark the mother and the newborn.

Efforts to reach the minister proved abortive but the NIDCOM chair, who did not pick her call but responded to a text message sent to her line by our correspondent said, “Yes, the plane had to return. Mother and child (are) fine.”

Our correspondent sent her another text message to ascertain whether the plane would still be landing in Nigeria today but she was yet to reply as of the time of filing this report.