Ethiopian Airlines Lands 5 Week Shanghai Flight Ban

The Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) has hit Ethiopian Airlines with a five-week suspension of operations. The East African carrier is banned from flying its route from Addis Ababa’s Bole International Airport to Shanghai’s Pudong for five weeks beginning Monday, October 26. The ban is a result of as many as 15 passengers from flight ET684 on October 6th testing positive for coronavirus. Five of them showed positive results immediately upon arrival and were quarantined at the airport. Another ten tested positive a week later, on October 13. China requires all international travelers to have a negative PCR test done no later than 48 hours before departure. The people who tested positive on Ethiopian’s October 6 flight had received their pre-departure test certificates from Silk Road General Hospital, a Chinese-owned COVID-19 testing center in Addis Ababa. As a result, Ethiopian says it will no longer accept passengers with COVID-19 tests done at Silk Road General Hospital.<br/>