Emirates launches rapid COVID-19 passenger tests

Posted on 16 April 2020

Emirates is the first airline to launch on-site rapid COVID-19 testing for passengers. The airline was given the green light to partially resume operations on 6 April.

Tests are conducted by Dubai health officials at the Dubai International Airport. Within 10 minutes the results are available. Essentially, a passenger’s finger is pricked and the blood from that is tested.

Emirates has plans to ‘scale-up’ on tests for passengers that require a COVID-19 test certificate for the country they are travelling to.

Dubai announced that partial passenger services from Dubai to Algiers, Chicago, Jakarta, Kabul, Manila, Tunis and Taipei are in operation.

The tests conducted are serology (blood) tests that are not used to diagnose active coronavirus infections. The blood samples essentially search for antibodies or proteins in the immune system. If these are identified then the person tested would have previously been exposed to the virus and has developed antibodies against it.

Antibodies however are not present in the initial onset of infection, according to the US Food and Drug Administration. This means that the body is still developing the antibodies and their presence will therefore go undetected.

This is however still a proactive move for safer air travel.

Image: Twitter/ Emirates






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