Concerns over aviation ministry move to permit international fliers take Covid-19 tests after arrival to India

Three days after the central government issued guidelines on Wednesday allowing international passengers arriving in the country to get tested for Covid-19 at the

Three days after the central government issued guidelines on Wednesday allowing international passengers arriving in the country to get tested for Covid-19 at the entry airport, experts have raised concerns and said that this step would pose a risk of spreading the virus to other passengers who were tested negative before their departure.

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The central government has said the latest guideline will be implemented on a pilot basis without specifying the time period.

Responding to the concerns, Rajeev Jain, additional director general and spokesman, Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA), said, “Our order just talks of facilities available at entry airport and the guidelines followed for transit passengers. Ministries of civil aviation, home affairs or health and family welfare have not discriminated asymptomatic passengers to be treated differently . Experts need to advise if their demand is that the passengers need to be Covid-19 negative before boarding flight or they should be treated separately. Even after testing negative, a passenger may get infected during transit before boarding his/her next flight. Even the World Health Organization’s International Health Regulations (IHR) has not mandated any such requirement for passengers to be made to sit separately from the ones who have got themselves tested before take off. However, further discussions are proposed with health officials and other relevant departments, “

The letter written by Vipul Saxena, a former defence pilot and an aviation expert, read, “The order virtually sends message of exemption from RT-PCR (reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction) test 96 hours before boarding at last foreign departure point as the order doesn’t specify under which circumstance a passenger is exempted from the test; this would encourage passengers to deliberately avoid RT-PCR and increase risk of boarding of infected passengers, putting other healthy passengers at risk of getting infection from one who boarded and supposedly positive. The order is also silent about separating such passengers from others and being made to sit separately from other passengers.”

Saxena also pointed out that passengers who board the flight without getting tested should be handled separately for in-flight services.

“It is requested that the order may please be reviewed and specify a list of exempted instances under which a passenger who could not do RT-PCR may be allowed to board, and also that such passengers are to be allotted seats away from other passengers...passengers without RT-PCR be allowed only under extraneous circumstances and be treated on board as deemed to be infected for the seating arrangements and in flight services etc (sic),” the letter concluded.

Allowing international passengers to take onward flights after landing at the entry airport (and thereby avoiding the seven-day institutional quarantine), the aviation ministry on September 2, had issued guidelines for entry airports to conduct the RT-PCR tests for passengers without the negative RT-PCR results of tests they are supposed to take 96 hours within the take off.

The aviation ministry had stated that a passenger will be allowed to take the onward domestic flight only if he tests negative and that the result will be given within seven hours. It also directed airport operators to ensure that such passengers are made to wait at one location – where basic facilities such as Wi-Fi, food and washrooms are available – until the test results are declared. However, the guidelines failed to state protocols for the other passengers who booked for onward journey but travelled with an infected co-passenger in their previous flight.

Mohan Ranganathan, former instructor pilot for Boeing 737, said, “Going by the recent guidelines, all the other passengers are at a greater risk of getting exposed to the virus. The ministry seems to have thought of the guidelines only after considering the commercial angle to help the airlines and did not think about the risk factors which are a larger issue. Passengers who plan to get themselves tested after landing in India could be carriers and in case any other passenger catches the virus from them, they will transmit it to other passengers on their subsequent flights.”

Aviation safety expert Captain Amit Singh said changes in the guidelines should have been issued by the health ministry.

“MoHFW (Ministry of Health and Family Welfare) issued the revised guidelines on September 2, which clearly stated that the test be carried out prior to boarding. Any change in the guideline must be issued by the competent authority ie. MoHFW itself. Notifications have to be communicated by issuing the Aeronautical Information Publication (AIP) or a supplement thereof, but the MoCA (Ministry of Civil Aviation) did not do so. International regulations (ICAO Annex-9) mandate that a national facilitation committee coordinate all such issues. I am not sure if this committee is in place yet,” he said.

Singh further said, “If a passenger tests positive post arrival, there is no standard operating procedure (SOP) for it. Will all 200-300 passengers on the aircraft be quarantined? An established protocol needs to be followed. Passenger safety is compromised the moment a passenger is permitted on board without a confirmation [of test results] as one could easily be spreading the virus.”