Riyadh, April 17, 2020, SPA -- King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh received this evening 187 male and female citizens arriving from Los Angeles, as part of the scheduled trips intended to repatriate citizens from abroad, as per the directions of the wise leadership. And in the interest of the safety and health of citizens abroad in light of the outbreak of the Coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19), as this flight is considered one of the longest international flights in the world in which 4 air crews participate in one flight. They were received upon their arrival by the President of the General Authority of Civil Aviation (GACA), Mr. Abdulhadi bin Ahmed Al-Mansouri, and the Assistant to the President for Operations, Eng. Suleiman Al-Bassam and a number of government officials. Immediately after their arrival, all health and preventive measures to combat the Novel Coronavirus (Covid-19) were applied. It included (12) stages that are applied from the arrival of the citizens at the airport of the country of departure until their arrival and exit from the kingdom's airports. Meanwhile, when the flight arrived at the kingdom’s airports, GACA applies the procedures by which the passengers disembark from the plane in a standardized way to ensure that there is no congestion inside the terminals. This in addition to providing a sterilization area at the gate. The Ministry of Health has allocated a checkpoint through which all incoming passengers pass through the mandatory thermal camera devices to ensure the safety of all passengers. When a positive condition is suspected among the passengers, that particular passenger is then isolated from the rest of the crowd and a safe path is then activated to transfer the case. Furthermore, passengers are also required to sterilize their hands before the start of passport control and fingerprinting procedures. At the customs area a distance of at least 1.5 meters is maintained between the customs officers and passengers. Passengers are then sorted on the last stage, upon exit by the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Tourism, each according to their destinations. Meanwhile, passengers are then directed to buses allocated to them from the transport fleet of the Ministry of Education, which is provided with all services and safety measures. Passengers are then transported to the guesthouses prepared by the Ministry of Tourism and supervised by the Ministry of Health for a period of 14 days, according to the health measures adopted to combat the Coronavirus epidemic. The returning citizens expressed their happiness over their arrival to the homeland, extending their thanks and appreciation to the leadership for the care and attention they received during their stay abroad until their arrival in the Kingdom. --SPA 01:51 LOCAL TIME 22:51 GMT 0027 www.spa.gov.sa/w1309247