Maputo flight passengers tested in Lisbon
Portuguese health authorities are testing covid-19 on all 262 passengers on a flight from Maputo, Mozambique, which landed in the late afternoon at Humberto Delgado airport in Lisbon.
“At 18:41, a plane from Maputo, carrying 262 passengers, landed. What is happening is a joint operation. The National Institute of Medical Emergency (INEM) is guaranteeing, from a technical point of view, that tests will be carried out for all patients. passengers “, told journalists Bruno Borges, from INEM.
In addition to INEM, this operation involves the Doctor Ricardo Jorge National Health Institute (INSA), the Foreigners and Borders Service (SEF) and the PSP.
The same official clarified that this operation is being carried out following the Government’s decision that “provides that all passengers must undergo an antigen test or a PCR test upon entry into national territory, in order to ensure that all persons entering the territory national do not have a disease in the face of this new variant that we have, which is very aggressive”.
“People have to take a test and then have 14 days of prophylactic isolation. They are being notified by the SEF in this regard and as soon as the samples have been finished for all passengers, the tests will be delivered to the Ricardo Jorge Institute”, he said Bruno Borges.
At 19:20 it was already done as a biological sample test for 10 passengers.
The official also said that the test results will not be known today.
“Residents in the national territory will guarantee their prophylactic isolation at home. Anyone who does not have accommodation will be accompanied and the health authorities will determine the place where this isolation will take place”, added Bruno Borges.
According to a statement from the MAI, released on Friday, “from 00:00 on Saturday this 27th of November, all flights from Mozambique (as well as from South Africa, Botswana, Essuatini, Lesotho, Namibia) and Zimbabwe) are required to comply with a quarantine of 14 days after entering mainland Portugal, at home or in places indicated by the health authorities”.
The MAI also specifies that the mandatory 14-day quarantine is extended to “citizens who enter national territory who have left some countries seven countries in the 14 days prior to their arrival in Portugal”.
“These restrictive measures aim to prevent the spread of the new variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus”, justifies the government.
In Portugal, since March 2020, 18,405 people have died and 1,139,810 cases of infection have been recorded, according to data from the General Directorate of Health.
A new variant (Omicron) was recently detected in South Africa and, according to the World Health Organization, the “high number of mutations” may imply greater infectivity.