In a press conference yesterday evening (6 April), foreign secretary Dominic Raab gave an update on the Foreign and Commonwealth Office repatriation operation during the coronavirus pandemic. 

On commercial flights, he said 200,000 people had been flown home from Spain, 13,000 from Egypt, 8,000 from Indonesia and 1,550 from cruise ships, including Holland America Line’s Zaandam and Princess Cruises’ Coral Princess.

The government has also chartered flights from seven different countries for more than 2,000 nationals.

“I want to reassure people that every arm of government is doing everything it possibly can to defeat the coronavirus and rise to the challenges that it presents us at home and abroad,” said Raab.

This follows a government partnership with 14 airlines including British Airways, Virgin Atlantic, easyJet, Jet2.com and Titan Airways.

Raab was taking the daily conference in Boris Johnson’s continued absence after the prime minister was struck down with Covid-19 before being hospitalised and later moved to intensive care on Monday evening (7 April).