In partnership with Pure Health and Tamouh Healthcare, Abu Dhabi Airports have launched rapid free COVID-19 PCR testing for all arrivals, except those in transit, with results provided in around 90 minutes.
The new state of the art RT-PCR lab offers testing within Abu Dhabi International Airport (AUH) to facilitate air travel procedures and support quarantine tracking procedures.
Designed to ensure the health, safety, and wellbeing of travellers and staff at Abu Dhabi airport, the new Real Time Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR) testing process is free for arriving passengers and offers results in approximately 90 minutes. The laboratory has the capacity to test more than 20,000 travellers and staff per day.
Shareef Hashim Al Hashmi, Chief Executive Officer of Abu Dhabi Airports, said: “The introduction of the RT-PCR Covid-19 testing is a milestone achievement in our ongoing efforts to facilitate the safe resumption of international air travel and support the recovery of the aviation industry.”
All passengers arriving at Abu Dhabi International Airport through both terminals 1 and 3 will be tested at the AUH PCR testing facility.
Results of the Covid-19 tests will be shared by SMS and WhatsApp, as well as being available on the Alhosn mobile application. Passengers can leave the airport once they have finalised the PCR test processes.
Passengers who receive a negative PCR test and are arriving from the list of ‘green’ countries outlined by the government of Abu Dhabi, will not have to self-isolate.
Those arriving from countries not on the ‘green’ list will have to self-isolate for a period of ten days, and will require a quarantine wristband fitted at the PCR testing tent attached to the airport.
Passengers transiting through the airport will not be tested prior to departing for their final destinations.
The lab, being developed and operated by Pure Health – the region’s largest laboratory operator – and the healthcare and passenger facility, being developed by UAE-based Tamouh Healthcare, will have the capacity to test more than 20,000 travellers per day. The 4,000 square metre facility will operate around the clock with up to 190 staff.
In addition, the airport has deployed touch-less elevator technology, SterixEco Gates sterilisation tunnels, thermal scanning cameras, as well cameras with facial recognition capabilities that alert staff if passengers or visitors to the airport are displaying symptoms of Covid-19 or not wearing face masks.