After the Hong Kong government banned Air India’s flights till 31 August as 11 people tested positive with Covid-19 on arrival there from Delhi, the Indian government is now planning to make corona test mandatory for outbound international flyers prior to their journey.
Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri hinted on this when he said: “I witnessed in one place several people were found Covid-positive and that country or that city wanting to suspend flights. We are of that opinion too. After hearing this, I told Civil Aviation Secretary that we are insisting for the RTPCR test certificate from people coming in. I would encourage that even for people going out of India, we will insist on getting their test done prior to embarkation. And we will do that.”
Currently for inbound passengers in India has 7 days institutional and 7 days home quarantine with an exemption for those who produce a negative certificate of an RT-PCR test conducted within 96 hours of their flight’s departure. Similarly, the crew that has tested negative for Covid-19 is allowed to operate inbound flights to India.
Last week Hong Kong’s Department of Health prohibited landing of Air India passenger flights for two weeks from 18 to 31 August in Hong Kong. They also raised concerns over the reliability of tests in India.
“If you are carrying 280 passengers in a wide-bodied plane and six or eight of them turn out to be Covid-positive, let’s get a realistic perspective on the figure. Many of the people are asymptomatic,” added Hardeep Puri. But they should get a test done before catching the flight.