Thread by @dawalelo

If you are flying out of an international airport, you must read this story on the dos/donts and the rampant capitalisation at the expense of hapless passengers occuring during #COVID19 ✈️ - Let us begin with ground scenario at #Delhi International Airport ~ 4000 tests daily - 🧵

Delhi airport has 200 Abbott ID now machine (each costing Rs 2.5 lakh) which loads one sample at a time - this Rapid PCR test can give results in 13 mins, but swelling crowds can cause delays sometimes upto 3-4 hours. Genestrings Diagnostics has monopoly charging Rs 3500 per test

This means a revenue of Rs 1.5 crore daily for the company by testing incoming/outgoing passengers, but there is also long waiting period at times, and congestion to say the least. @TheKenWeb found touts offering fake negative reports to passengers tested positive for 10x price

Now enter #Adani group, which is backing North Star Diagnostics, that operates rapid PCR testing at 4 out of 6 Adani control airports - Ahmedabad, Lucknow, Jaipur, Mumbai. Cost per test is Rs 3500 - 30-35% revenue is transferred to the airport. No tenders for onboarding companies

If you are flying to the US, please ensure you carry a RT-PCR report which has been generated by any lab (not necessarily airport), sample collected with 24 hours of travel, if you are travelling to Dubai ensure you reach airport atleast 10 hours prior to your flight to beat wait

Dubai needs RT-PCR reports generated within six hours of flight, despite you having a negative RT-PCR report generated a day prior, US has no such requirement. If you come positive at the airport, not all flights are deferring travel. Atleast 3 people I know lost money, no refund

Please read this detailed ground report on testing chaos at the airports, fly by night operators with little or no pedigree in diagnostics entering testing business and minting massive money [FREE story, simply sign up with email id to access] the-ken.com/story/the-thir… @TheKenWeb

It takes a village to produce a story @TheKenWeb - hat tip to @AdhithiPriya @prajektor for brainstorming a brilliant user-friendly graphic you can carry in your pocket to understand testing rates and lab reputations, @Singh10Seema @jananevenk for making the story sharp

An 80-year-old neigbour was flying alone to US today, his check in at 7 pm. He booked a test through aggregator 1MG who picked up sample at 830 am. US requires samples to be collected within 24 hours of departure. By 130 pm, the elderly man started panicking. What happened next..

He had no guarantee of receiving his results on time. On checking his test details, I realized that the sample had gone to Metropolis for processing. I thankfully knew a senior executive at Metropolis so I called to ask by what time could we expect a result. To our shock...

The aggregator 1MG had not dropped the sample at Metropolis Lab five hours since they had picked it up. Metropolis expedited the test considering the special situation and arranged for the sample to be dropped to their lab by 4 pm. The lab report arrived by 6 pm. But imagine...

I shudder to think what is happening to travellers who are clueless after spending tonnes of money whether they will get their results, what do travel rules look like (CDC website in US is long and complicated), what if they are tested positive, what about airline refunds? A mess