Kerala: CIAL begins Rapid Antibody testing of international passengers

KOCHI: The Cochin International Airport Limited (CIAL) will begin Rapid Antibody testing of international arrival passengers from Friday morning in accordance with the instruction given by the state government. CIAL informed that a coordinated system has been established by the health, revenue and security officials to implement the testing and 200 passengers will be tested per hour.
“CIAL established 16 counters near the international arrival area, after the Customs hall for testing the passengers. HLL Lifecare Limited, a Government of India-owned company is entrusted with the testing job. International passengers who do not have Covid-19 negative certificates will have to undergo RAB test and they will not be allowed to leave the airports till the results come. Usually an RAB test will take 20-30 minutes and passengers who undergo it should wait at the allotted area till the results come. If found positive, they will be sent to Covid-19 treatment centres for further confirmation tests like RT-PCR,” said a statement from CIAL.
As per the latest guideline, all arrival passengers should wear N95 face mask, face shield, hand gloves and carry sanitisers. Apart from these, PPE kits are made mandatory for those returning from Saudi Arabia and Kuwait. As UAE has already made Covid-19 tests mandatory for all departing passengers, they should produce the test certificate at the counter. Those who are coming from Qatar should have green status in Ehteraz, the COVID contact-tracing mobile app of Qatar government and they too will have to undergo RAB testing.
23 relief flights scheduled for Friday
CIAL schedules 23 relief flights from Middle East countries and one from Tbilisi, Georgia on Friday evacuating 4320 passengers. The airport confirms the arrival of 15 flights on Thursday with 2520 passengers.
Four arrival operations scheduled by Indigo (from Riyadh, Dubai, Kuwait and Abu Dhabi) and one arrival operation scheduled by Salam air from Muscat were cancelled. The international repatriation operations scheduled for Friday are: Indigo flight from Doha at 1.35am, Fly Dubai flights from Dubai at 2.30am, 12.05am and 6.15am, Indigo flight from Dubai at 3.40am, Spice Jet flights from Ras Al Khaima at 3am, 5am and 7pm.
There will be Air Arabia flights from Sharjah at 4.30am, 7.15am, 8.15am, 8pm, 11pm and 11.15pm, Qatar Airways flight from Doha at 11am, Go Air flight from Doha at 3pm, Indigo flight from Doha at 3.45pm, Indigo flight from Dubai at 4.45pm, Air India Express flight from Muscat at 5.15pm, Air India Express flight from Abu Dhabi at 9.05pm, Indigo flight from Riyadh at 9.40pm, Air India flight from Tbilisi (Georgia) via Delhi at 10.15pm.
Domestic terminal handled 25 arrival/departure operations on Thursday. Two round trips to Mumbai and Delhi and one departure to Delhi were cancelled.