Airline company Emirates claims it is the first in the industry to conduct coronavirus blood tests on passengers before they depart.
Testing began Wednesday with passengers before they boarded a flight from Dubai to Tunisia. The blood test returns results in less than 10 minutes, according to NPR. The company said it is looking into expanding the testing to other flights in a bid to combat COVID-19.
“We are working on plans to scale up testing capabilities in the future and extend it to other flights,” Adel al Redha, Emirates’s chief operating officer, said in a statement. “This will enable us to conduct on-site tests and provide immediate confirmation for Emirates passengers traveling to countries that require COVID-19 test certificates.”
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The tests are not intended to diagnose those who have active infections, but rather to analyze whether passengers have come in contact with the contagion and have developed antibodies against it. According to CNN, the airline has not said whether people would be refused a chance to board depending on the result of the test.
Revenues for airlines across the world have seen sharp declines as many countries and a vast majority of the United States have been placed under lockdown or shelter-in-place guidelines.
Worldwide, there have been more than 2.1 million confirmed coronavirus cases and at least 140,000 deaths.
