while the cost of regular RT-PCR Test was reduced from Rs 950 till Sunday to Rs 700 on Monday, from Wednesday it was further reduced by Rs 100 to Rs 600. Similarly, the cost of Rapid PCR, which provides results within an hour and saves international travelers the hassle of having to sit at the airport for six-seven hours for test results before allowing them to travel to the destination, has been reduced from Rs 4,000 to Rs 3,600 till Sunday. was done. Monday. On Tuesday, the Kolkata airport announced a further deduction of Rs 700 from Wednesday.
Kolkata airport director C Pattabhi said, “In order to provide relief to the passengers facing hardship during the pandemic, the cost of rapid PCR has been reduced by about 27%, while the cost of RT-PCR has been reduced by 33% from Sunday. has been reduced.”
Also Rapid PCR test is now available for children above 5 years as well. Till now testing was available only for passengers above 12 years of age.
While all passengers arriving from at-risk countries are required to undergo a mandatory COVID test, 2% of randomly selected passengers arriving on other international flights are also required to undergo a COVID test as directed. Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. There are flights coming from India United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Thailand and Bangladesh are among the countries not yet at risk.
Passengers departing for UAE are also required to undergo RT-PCR test six hours before departure in addition to routine RT-PCR test within 48 hours prior to departure.
In addition, several other countries such as the UK and the US announced RT-PCR tests within a short period of time, requiring many passengers to test themselves before boarding an airport flight and then taking a transit flight from Delhi, Mumbai, or Dubai. is expected. Doha. While the UK now requires testing within 48 hours of departure, passengers traveling to the US will need to be tested the day before flight.
The rate reduction at Kolkata airport was possible after the Airports Authority of India (AAI) decided to waive part of the revenue from COVID tests and pass on the benefits to passengers. In Kolkata, AAI is evaluating proposals from other testing laboratories to provide the service at even more competitive rates.
Pattabhi also announced installation of 25 more machines for rapid PCR testing to take the count to 45. Each machine is capable of testing four samples in an hour. This will increase the Kolkata Airport rapid PCR testing capacity from 80 to 180 per hour.
Last week, the number of kiosks for swab collection for RT-PCR tests was increased from three to six. While Singapore Airlines has been operating daily flights since November 29, there is an Air India direct flight between London and Kolkata every Sunday. In addition, there are many flights from Dhaka Daily from Dubai by Emirates, Fly Dubai and Indigo. Qatar Airways is operating two flights a week. From Wednesday, Air India will fly to Bangkok twice a week.
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