Some 150 passengers aboard a cruise ship in the Mediterranean tested positive for COVID-19 after arriving at Italy’s Port of Genoa on Monday from the French Port of Marseille. In Pakistan's Karachi airport ,as many as 99 passengers travelling to Dubai, Sharjah, and Abu Dhabi were found infected with Covid-19 on Saturday.
Sources in the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) said these passengers were travelling to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) via different flights. They were subjected to rapid antigen tests four hours before their departure at Karachi airport, which showed they were infected with the coronavirus.
The Italian news agency ANSA reported that after contracting coronavirus, the passengers, most of them Italians, have been isolated in their cabins on the MSC Grandiosa cruise ship docked in Genoa, the most famous seaport of Italy.
The Italians will be reportedly sent home on protected vehicles and foreigners will be taken to a care home in Genoa.
The ship, which was supposed to leave for Civitavecchia, a coastal town northwest of the capital Rome, on Monday afternoon, will be able to sail after complete disinfection.
On Jan 14, eighteen passengers tested positive for COVID-19 after they underwent rapid antigen tests upon their arrival at Karachi airport from Jeddah and Dubai.
Of the affected passengers,16 landed in Karachi via a Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) flight PK-9732 from Jeddah, whereas, the remaining two Covid-positive travellers flew in from Dubai via EK-600. Nine passenger were stuck at Multan airport who were travelling to Sharjah and Dubai.
The Covid-positive travellers included 17 men and a woman who were later moved to their homes for a mandatory 10-day quarantine
It is noteworthy that the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) on Jan 12 decided to revise the quarantine policy for inbound passengers. The authorities cancelled their central quarantine policy for inbound passengers and prepared new guidelines for Covid-positive travellers arriving in Pakistan.