Taiwan to quarantine all pilots of top airline
Print Edition
TAIWAN will quarantine all pilots at its largest carrier China Airlines for 14 days as it tries to stop an outbreak of COVID-19, the Chinese island’s health authority said yesterday.
Taiwan yesterday reported four new cases associated with the a cluster involving Taiwan-based China Airlines cargo pilots and Novotel Taipei Taoyuan International Airport hotel employees.
The latest cases include a China Airlines pilot, a shuttle bus driver and two family members of an earlier confirmed case, said the local disease monitoring agency.
There have been 35 confirmed infections so far in the outbreak.
The agency told reporters the only way to break the chain of transmission at the carrier is to quarantine all China Airlines pilots currently in Taiwan and any who return.
“This will have a big impact on China Airlines, on its passenger and freighter flights, and for the crew, too. But for the safety of the whole community we cannot but make this decision,” Chen Shih-chung, head of the agency said.
The pilots will only be allowed out of quarantine if they test negative, he said.
Prioritize cargo flights
China Airlines, a major cargo carrier, said it would split the quarantining pilots into groups and try “as much as possible to maintain flight operations; it is not a total grounding.”
China Airlines will prioritize cargo flights, but there will be disruption even as they “go all out” to ensure they can still fly, it said.
“The short-term reduction in Taiwan’s import and export capacity will affect the delivery time of goods,” China Airlines said.
Health authorities believe some of the pilots got infected overseas, then spread the infection upon returning to Taiwan, and that others could have been infected by pilots from other airlines staying at the same hotel.
The government has been alarmed by the cases as some of the pilots went to bars and restaurants in northern Taiwan before their infections were confirmed, running the risk of community transmission, though no infections have been linked to that yet.
The airport hotel has since been evacuated and is undergoing a deep clean.
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