In a first, PIA crew member tests positive for coronavirus

KARACHI: A Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) crew member tested positive for novel coronavirus (COVID-19) for the first time on Sunday, ARY News reported.

According to PIA officials, the 22-year-old flight attendant was shifted to an isolation ward of Rawalpindi Institute of Urology after his test for the coronavirus came out positive.

22 crew members who performed duties with him have been instructed to self-isolate themselves and will take a test for the disease.

The affected flight attendant performed duty on an Oslo-to-Islamabad flight (PK-722) and had also been on an Islamabad-Jeddah-Islamabad flight before he tested positive for the coronavirus.

The PIA management has decided to take samples of the 22 crew members for a COVID-19 test in three days.

Earlier in the day, a spokesperson for the national flag carrier said a senior technician of PIA engineering department in Peshawar has been quarantined over suspicions of coronavirus as his body temperature was detected above average during routine screening.

The suspected coronavirus patient will be kept in isolation until his test reports are received by the management.

Besides, the management has started looking for the people who have come into contact with the suspected COVID-19 carrier.