Qatar Airways, like other international airlines, is continuing its scheduled flights to two countries in West Africa, Nigeria and Liberia, which are among the four countries identified as hotspots for the Ebola Virus Disease (EVD).
However, airline management stressed that Qatar Airways is taking the necessary health and safety precautions to protect passengers, its crew, and the general public from the dreaded disease.
On its website, Qatar Airways posted a travel advisory saying that “The World Health Organisation (WHO) is closely monitoring the Ebola situation and has sent teams of experts to all affected countries to assess the situation and assist in containing the problem.”
“The health and well being of our passengers and staff is of upmost importance to Qatar Airways and we would like to reassure you that we are monitoring the situation very closely and are in contact with both local and international health and aviation organisations to ensure that all necessary and appropriate measures are in place to protect our passengers, our staff, and the general public,” the advisory further said.
Qatar Airways participated yesterday in a joint meeting headed by Qatar’s Supreme Council of Health (SCH) together with Hamad Medical Corporation (HMC), Primary Health Care Corporation (PHCC), Qatar Petroleum (QP), and the Ministry of Interior (MoI).
The meeting discussed “potential scenarios and appropriate preventive and control measures.”
The SCH said it is also considering medical screening on passengers arriving from Ebola-stricken countries and intensified surveillance and tracing of contacts of suspected cases through an information dissemination campaign among HMC, PHCC, Qatar Airways, and Hamad International Airport personnel.
Earlier, the SCH said it has recommended restricting travel to countries with active local transmission, namely Guinea, Liberia, Nigeria, and Sierra Leone until further notice.
The WHO director-general has not recommended a general ban on travel and trade with the affected countries.
