The Centre is planning to ask outbound flyers from India on international flights to have a COVID-19 test done prior to their flight. This comes in the aftermath of Hong Kong government banning Air India flights till August 31 after 11 people tested positive for coronavirus on arrival there from Delhi.
In an apparent reference to the Hong Kong government’s move, Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri said: “I saw in one place that a number of people were found positive and that country or that city wanting to suspend flights. Look, we ourselves are of that opinion. When I heard this, I told Civil Aviation Secretary that we are insisting for the RT-PCR test certificate from people coming in, I would encourage that even for people going out of India … we will insist that they have a test done prior to embarkation. And we will do that”.
