Hundreds of Dubai-bound passengers get stranded in India on Monday. It is so because the Covid-19 reports carried by the passengers were from the labs that are blacklisted for travel to UAE. As per the reports, results from Suryam Lab in Jaipur, Micro Health Laboratory in cities of Kerala, Dr P. Bhasin Pathlabs in Delhi and Noble Diagnostic Centre in Delhi got rejected in the case of Dubai-bound passengers, according to an announcement by Air India Express (AIE).
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Over 300 Passengers Were Affected From The South Indian States On Monday
Not only Air India, but similar directives were announced by SpiceJet and Indigo too. More than 250 UAE bound passengers were sent back from various airports in Kerala on Monday. Other 60 passengers who were bound to travel from Mangalore, Karnataka had tested from Micro Health Labs, were sent back too.
Rajesh Poduwal, head of airport operations at Kannur International Airport, said to a leading daily,
“A total of 117 passengers did not travel on Air India Express flight from Kannur. Rebooking has been done by the airline for all ‘no show passengers’ without extra cost.”
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The Labs Are Blacklisted By the UAE Authorities Over False-Negative Reports Concern
As per the reports in a leading daily, the labs were blacklisted because of the concerns over false-negative reports.
“We have been given to understand that there have been cases in which these labs had issued negative results to people who tested positive on their arrival here,” said Neeraj Agrawal, consul for Press, Information and Culture at the Indian Consulate in Dubai. He further said passengers should now get tested from other approved laboratories.
Air India Is Offering A Free-Date Changing Option For Affected Passengers
As per the list of labs approved by ICMR posted on Sunday, there are 931 labs approved to conduct RT-PCR test for COVID-19 in India. The list included the ones blacklisted by Dubai too. It indicates that the Indian government had not taken away their approval for conducting the test.
Keeping the issue in mind, Air India Express offered a free date-changing option for passengers affected on Monday. And, Micro Health Laboratories offered to test them from other ICMR-approved laboratories for free as per their date of travel.