Plane passengers test negative for coronavirus before flying then positive on landing

Greece has suspended flights to and from Qatar after passengers on a flight from Doha to Athens tested positive for coronavirus.

The Greek civil protection authority said 12 out of 91 people on a Qatar Airways flight that arrived on Monday had tested positive for COVID-19.

“Following these epidemiological facts, flights from and to Qatar are suspended until June 15,” the agency said in a statement.

However, Qatar Airways said that all passengers on the Athens-bound flight were healthy before they boarded the plane in Doha.

Greece has now suspended all flights from Qatar until middle of June (Getty Images/iStockphoto)

Qatar Airways claimed that all the passengers on Flight QA203 had tested negative to coronavirus during pre-flight checks.

Qatar said that the 12 infected passengers were not from Qatar.

The General Secretariat for Civil Protection said in a press release that one person was a Greek national coming from Japan, two were Greek nationals coming from Australia and nine were Pakistani nationals, coming from the Pakistani city of Gujrat, who have a Greek residence permit,

Those who tested positive for coronavirus will be quarantined for 14 days.

The passengers who tested negative will have to go into quarantine for seven days and then be retested to make sure they still don't have the virus.

In a statement Qatar Airways said: “Upon arrival in Doha and before boarding the flight to Athens, all passengers were screened and tested according to the procedures and established health protocols and were found suitable to continue their journey."