Iranian authorities have made presenting a negative COVID-19 polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test compulsory for all inbound flight passengers in Tehran from August 5.
According to the guidelines posted on the website of Tehran’s Imam Khomeini airport (IKA), the PCR test results are required to be dated within 96 hours of arrival in the country and to be carried out by a qualified laboratory. The PCR documents need to be in English.
Passengers with non-Iranian nationality will not be allowed into the country if they do not carry a certificate of a negative PCR test result, said Mohammad Reza Karimian, deputy director of Imam Khomeini airport (IKA).
Karimian said that Iranian citizens failing to provide a PCR result test will have to incur the costs of a test and a forced 48-hour quarantine that follows it.
Even passengers with a negative test could be subject to quarantine measures if they are deemed suspicious on arrival at IKA, he said.
Iran, the hardest hit country in the Middle East by COVID-19, is struggling to reduce the risk of imported disease cases amid increased international travel to the region.
Iran’s ministry of foreign affairs has also stopped issuing tourist and pilgrimage visas due to the outbreak of the new coronavirus.
A spokesman of the Iranian health ministry said on Saturday that the number of infections in the country had risen by 2,548 to reach a total of 306,752.
Sima Sadat Lari said some 16,982 people had died, including 216 patients over the past 24 hours, while there have been a total 265,830 recoveries from the virus since it was first reported in Iran in late February.
Increase in international flights
Iran Airports Company has registered a total of 1,439 takeoffs and landings for international flights during the first quarter of the current Iranian year (March 20-June 20) to register a 91% decline compared with the similar period of last year.
A total of 75,546 passengers and more than 7,569 tons of cargo were transported to and from overseas destinations, down 97% and 84% respectively compared with the corresponding period of last year.
In the third Iranian month (May 21-June 20), however, a total of 579 takeoffs and landings were registered, which indicates a 24% increase with the preceding month.
A total of 31,054 passengers and more than 2,687 tons of cargo were also transported to and from overseas destinations indicating 51% and 33% increase respectively compared with the preceding month.