Dubai-bound flight from India offloads passengers after Covid-19 patient gets on

An Emirates airplane flying to Dubai from the Indian city of Kochi in Kerala on Sunday, March 15, was forced to offload 270 passengers after it was confirmed that one of them had tested positive for the coronavirus.

A British national boarded the flight along with a tourist group of 18 others, who were all holidaying in a hill station in Kerala. He was reportedly under quarantine, officials from the Cochin International Airport told Indian media.

The man allegedly did not inform authorities while leaving the hotel, and was tracked down to the airport by health officials after his test results were revealed as positive for coronavirus.

Initially, it was decided to offload only the 19 passengers of his group, but all the passengers were later offloaded.

According to some reports, the flight later took off without 20 passengers, according to media reports. Flight tracking website Flight Radar shows that flight EK531, scheduled to take off at 9.20am, finally took off at 12.47pm local time.

The Indian state of Kerala has reported 22 coronavirus cases so far, with 270 people in isolation wards and over 4,000 people under observation, according to reports.

The Dubai airport has also implemented strict health checks for all passengers to curb the spread of Covid-19.

Read: People returning to the UAE from these countries must self-isolate for 14 days