A tour group of 11 Taiwanese who landed in Israel on a Turkish Airlines flight on Friday were denied entry and sent back to Taiwan yesterday, after an Israeli passenger on the flight was confirmed to have COVID-19.
The man was a passenger on the Diamond Princess cruise ship and had been hospitalized in Japan after testing positive for COVID-19, Israeli news outlet i24news said.
He was discharged after recovering and traveled to Israel via two Turkish Airlines flights — TK53 from Tokyo to Istanbul, Turkey, and TK784 from Istanbul to Tel Aviv — arriving in Israel on Friday morning, it said.
However, after he again tested positive for COVID-19, Israeli officials denied entry to all of the passengers on flight TK784 and sent them back to their countries of origin, Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中), who heads the Central Epidemic Command Center, said yesterday.
The Taiwanese flew back home on a chartered flight yesterday evening, he said.
At press time last night, one female passenger exhibited respiratory symptoms and was taken to a hospital for quarantine and treatment, while the other 10 were preparing to return home for a mandatory 14-day isolation, Centers for Disease Control Deputy Director-General Chuang Jen-hsiang (莊人祥) said.
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