A Division Bench of the Kerala High Court on Friday sought the Union Ministry of Civil Aviation’s response to a submission of the State government that it was insisting on COVID-19 test for those returning by chartered flights from the Gulf counties on the basis of a standard operating procedure issued by the Ministry.
The Bench, led by Chief Justice S. Manikumar, sought the response while hearing a public interest litigation petition challenging the government order requiring those travelling back on chartered flights to have COVID-19-negative certificates.
The government argued that it had issued the directive because there was every possibility of transmission of the disease during the flight. There would be heightened chances of transmission when COVID-19-free and COVID-19-afflicted persons travelled together.
The segregation of persons could be best done by the conduct of tests. In fact, the government did not insist on the PCR test, but the passenger could take inexpensive TrueNat or antibody tests.
