Nearly 99 percent of aircrew members working on long-haul international flights at Taiwan’s two largest airlines have been fully vaccinated against COVID-19, the Civil Aeronautics Administration (CAA) said yesterday.
Of the 10,222 pilots and flight attendants at China Airlines Ltd and EVA Airways, 9,131 work on long-haul international flights, with 9,015 of them having received a second dose of a COVID-19 vaccine by Monday, CAA data showed.
The remaining 116 pilots and flight attendants have refused to be vaccinated against COVID-19 for various reasons, from personal health issues to insistence on a specific vaccine brand or a mix of brands, Flight Standards Division Director Wu Chia-jen (吳家珍) said.
Photo: Wu Cheng-ting, Taipei Times
Twenty-two of them have yet to receive their first vaccine dose, he said, adding that they would be required to follow disease prevention regulations stipulated by the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC).
The agency helped the two airlines get their cabin crew members vaccinated as Minister of Transportation and Communications Wang Kwo-tsai (王國材) instructed last week, Wu added.
Except for those declining to be inoculated, China Airlines completed aircrew vaccinations on Thursday last week, while EVA Air is expected to finish by Friday.
Long-haul crew members who are fully vaccinated and test positive for antibodies must quarantine for five days and follow stricter health management guidelines for another nine days upon completing their flight duties, the center said.
Those who have yet to be vaccinated or have only received one dose must quarantine for seven days and follow stricter health-management guidelines for seven days, it added.
Crew members returning from the UK, India, Indonesia, Israel, Myanmar and other nations with a high risk for contracting COVID-19 must quarantine for 14 days, the center said.
“We are aware of discussion about whether pilots and flight attendants should get a booster shot, given the health risks involved in their line of work — we would defer the issue to the CECC and follow its instructions,” Wu said.
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