Global guidelines calling for the use of highly reliable tests when screening passengers to detect the novel coronavirus before flights are presented in a global aviation manual currently under review by an UN body, three sources familiar with the matter said.
Carriers and airports are calling for uniform global testing standards to waive stringent travel-decimating quarantine criteria, with the airline trade group IATA forecasting a 66 percent reduction in air traffic due to the pandemic in 2020.
Restrictions on travel and the use of testing now vary internationally. Some airlines require a negative test for travellers, while some countries allow tourists to visit without quarantine, while others ban all non-essential foreigners.
The Manual on Testing and Cross Border Risk Control Measures of the International Civil Aviation Organisation ( ICAO), scheduled in November, will provide voluntary technical guidance but would not oblige countries to remove quarantines.
Relevant tests such as antigen or polymerase chain reaction (PCR) are not expected to be suggested by the manual, the sources said. Rather, it will propose that passengers be tested using a 95 percent sensitivity and specificity test such that there would be few false positives and negatives, the sources stated.
Some quick tests are less sensitive and thus more likely than PCR alternatives to miss positive cases, although the accuracy difference has narrowed.
One of the sources said that a range of tests had initially been considered, with reliability as low as around 80% to close to 100%
Another suggestion is to screen passengers up to 48 hours in advance of travel, but not necessarily at the airport, the sources said. As the discussions are confidential, the sources refused to be identified.
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