Medical reports of five Air India pilots who had tested positive for COVID-19 earlier, came negative for the virus on Monday evening.
Airline officials confirmed the development and said that the retest results had boosted the morale of other anxious crew members in the middle of Vande Bharat Mission, India’s repatriation of its citizens who are stranded abroad being carried out by Air India and Air India Express.
On Sunday, the five, all Mumbai-based pilots, had tested positive for the virus. Officials termed their initial results as false positives given that the entire kit had given positive indication to everyone tested.
The retests were conducted by a private diagnostic laboratory.
The five had operated cargo flights between Guangzhou in China and Delhi, carrying medical supplies and equipment in April. Four of them had been rostered together, two pilots for each sector to China.
“We felt that it is was highly unlikely that they were positive. None of them had flown for 21 days. They were all at home,” a fellow pilot said.
Two of the five pilots had operated flights on April 18, while the others flew even earlier.
