PESHAWAR: Twenty-eight passengers tested positive for coronavirus at the Bacha Khan International Airport on Tuesday, according to the Civil Aviation Authority.
The airport’s Chief Operating Officer (COO), Obaid-ur-Rehman Abbasi, said that rapid antigen tests were conducted on 130 passengers who arrived at the airport from Bahrain. “The passengers who tested positive for the virus have been handed over to the district administration,” he added.
The airport management said that, following this, the international arrival lounge has been disinfected and reopened for passengers while those who tested positive are shifted to a government quarantine centre.
This is a worrying development as Pakistan continues to grapple with the third wave of the coronavirus pandemic, like many other countries around the world.
The total caseload in the country has crossed 850,000 cases.
A day before, the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) revoked a private airline’s flight permitover violations of the government’s mandated coronavirus protocols.
The private airline flight had flown 24 coronavirus positive cases from Dubai to Peshawar on May 10 and 27 more from Sharjah on May 16, despite warnings being given, said the CAA spokesperson, Saad bin Ayub. He said that the airline was ignoring coronavirus standard operating procedures (SOPs).
A CAA official added that the airline’s negligence posed a threat to the lives of airport and health officials. He also warned that any airline found violating Covid-19 SOPs will be banned in the country.
Pakistan had allowed an additional 30% flights to operate last week in a revised policy to ensure passengers were able to travel abroad without any hindrances, while only cargo flights of foreign airlines were allowed to return to Pakistan.
This is in addition to the 20% of flights that were already allowed by the CAA to operate in Pakistan, the notification had stated.
Earlier this month, CAA also issued new protocols for inbound flights in which Airlines were instructed to keep 20% of airplane seats vacant and ensure social distancing between passengers.
On May 5, CAA began rapid Covid-19 testing of international passengers at airports across Pakistan and through these tests, according to the Health Ministry, coronavirus reports will be obtained within 20 minutes.
A positive report will result in passengers having to isolate at a quarantine centre at their own expense. Those who test negative will be allowed to go home but will have to stay indoors for a week.
This decision was taken after the rapid spread of the third wave of coronavirus. In the last 24 hours, 135 people died from the deadly virus, while 2,566 new cases were reported.
