A family will end a nightmare trip to Dubai today after being stranded for two weeks due a coronavirus test loophole.
Michele Lindsay went out to visit her cancer-stricken dad with her 78-year-old grandmother Catherine Cochrane on December 12, when the UK had a safe travel corridor with the UAE.
But both of them caught coronavirus and, after recovering and self-isolating, had planned to fly home on January 31.
Despite them no longer being contagious, PCR tests kept showing positive – so they were barred from flying.
Michele, 41, from Largs in Ayrshire, found they were victims of a quirk with the test which means the dead virus can give a positive result for up to 90 days.
She said: “I didn’t go to Dubai as an Instagram influencer to holiday. I went to visit my very sick dad and took my gran to see her son.”
It took Michele five attempts until she got a negative result on Friday, meaning the pair can board a flight today. She said: “There is currently nothing in place to assist these passengers and you basically have to sit and wait it out until you can pass the PCR which is sometimes as long as 90 days.”
Michele brought Catherine, 78, from Cardonald, Glasgow, to visit her only son Hugh, 58, an oil and gas worker, after he was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in August last year.
Passenger flights from the UAE are banned from entering Scotland, so Michele and her gran will fly from Dubai to Dublin and then London before getting into Scotland.
