A government-arranged chartered flight carrying nearly 200 South Koreans has departed for Seoul from Peru, where they had been stranded during the country’s coronavirus lockdown.

The South Korean Embassy in Peru said the flight chartered from the Mexican airline, Aeromexico, took off from Lima at around 4 p.m. Thursday local time. 

It is set to make a stopover in the Mexican border city of Tijuana at night and arrive at Incheon International Airport on Saturday morning.

The embassy said all 198 passengers took the flight as they had no fever or other symptoms of COVID-19. 

The passengers, including tourists and volunteers operating under programs of the Korea International Cooperation Agency, had been stranded due to the Peruvian government's border closures.