AirAsia to coordinate with DOH; crew under quarantine

The airline is willing to provide the flight manifest and contact details to the DOH. The flight crew has been quarantined, it said in a statement. (File photo: Marufish/Flickr, CC BY-SA 2.0)

MANILA — Following the Department of Health’s (DOH) announcement that the third novel coronavirus (2019 nCov) positive person took an AirAsia Philippines flight, an official of the airline said on Wednesday they would closely coordinate with health authorities.

The airline is willing to provide the flight manifest and contact details to the DOH. The flight crew has been quarantined, it said in a statement.

“(Flight) Z2 7800 had four (cabin) crew, two pilots and one engineer.

As per DOH press conference earlier, they will not conduct contact tracing of Z2 passengers. Nevertheless, we are ready to provide passenger details and available contact details to the DOH,” David de Castro, AirAsia Philippines head of Communications, told the Philippine News Agency (PNA).

The carrier operates the Z2 7800 Cebu-Shenzhen flight once daily.

AirAsia Philippines said last January 31, the concerned passenger took the flight from Cebu at 11:35 p.

m. and arrived in Shenzhen, China at 2:40 a.m.

The third confirmed case is a 60-year-old woman from Wuhan who arrived in the country last January 20.

“According to DOH, the passenger was in good condition when she left the country. It added that the passenger had companions, but they did not show any symptoms of respiratory illness,” the carrier said in the statement.

Meanwhile, the carrier advises passengers of flight Z2 7800 to seek medical help if they are sick.

Aircraft disinfection, temperature screening of all passengers before boarding all flights, are being done, it added.

AirAsia Philippines has canceled flights between the Philippines and China and its special administrative regions from February 2 until March 1.