NEW DELHI: Nineteen passengers of Air India’s Delhi-Wuhan Air India flight tested Covid positive on arrival in the origin city of the global pandemic last Friday (October 30). In addition, about 40 of the 277 passengers of this flight were also found to have Covid antibodies.Whether this has an impact on the other flights AI plans to operate to China under the Vande Bharat Mission (VBM) remains to be seen. China’s special administrative region of Hong Kong suspends airlines for 14 days if five or more passengers on any single flights test positive for the virus on arrival.
An AI spokesperson said: “All our passengers to Wuhan had boarded the flight from Delhi with Covid negative reports from certified labs. AI strictly adheres to all the safety protocol laid down by regulatory bodies and conforms to requirements at destination airports. There is no question of passengers boarding any of our flights without valid covid negative reports.”AI has operated six flights to China so far during the pandemic, with the first two being on January 31 and February 1 to fly back Indians from Wuhan. With a significant number of Indians in China, AI has planned more flights there.
The Indian embassy in Beijing issued a statement Monday, saying AI is planning to operate four VBM flights to Delhi on November 13, 20, 27 and December 4. The October 30 flight saw 277 Indians flying from Delhi to Wuhan and 157 on the return trip. These who tested Covid positive in Wuhan have been hospitalised there, say officials.
