Covid-recovered patients can now fly within three weeks: Aviation ministry

As the coronavirus caseload in India exceeds the 5-lakh mark with over 3 lakh recoveries, the Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA) on Tuesday updated its earlier order and has allowed recovered patients to fly within three months of recovery instead of two months. According to the previous order, passengers had to give a declaration that they have not tested Covid-positive in the last two months. The norms have been eased to allow recovered patients to travel without any hardships.

“With regard to the evolving Covid-19 situation, where new cases that have been cured are in large numbers, a need has been felt to update this provision to avoid hardships in the matter of air travel to the persons cured/recovered from Covid-19. It has accordingly been decided to update the provision (Covid-negative for last three weeks instead of two months) and recovered persons fulfilling this condition will be allowed to travel upon showing a recovered/ discharged certificate from any institution dealing with Covid-19 subjects,” Aviation Ministry joint secretary Usha Padhee said.

This decision comes at a time when the Ministry of Civil Aviation has given its nod to increase the capacity of domestic flight operations to 45% from 33% allowed at present and also suspended international operations further till 15 July. However, Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) permitted few international flights to resume on selected routes on a case to case basis.

Minister of Civil Aviation Hardeep Singh Puri had earlier said that more than 2 million passengers had been ferried on close to 23,000 flights since domestic air operations resumed from 25 May. The relaxation in norms and increased domestic air capacity would encourage more people to travel by air.