Covid-19: Portugal conducts new return support flights between Lisbon and Maputo

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Covid-19: Portugal conducts new return support flights between Lisbon and Maputo

3:24 CAT | 06 Dec 2021

FILE PHOTO- For illustration purposes only. [File photo: Lusa]

The Portuguese government will arrange flights between Lisbon and Maputo on Wednesday, December 8th, and in the opposite direction on Thursday and Saturday, December 9th and 11th, the Portuguese embassy in the Mozambican capital announced on Friday.

The flights will be operated by the Portuguese airline TAP and, according to the embassy, “subsequently, additional flights of this nature will be organised according to need”.

The Portuguese authorities had announced previously a flight between Portugal and Mozambique for Friday, which arrived this Saturday in Maputo, returning to Lisbon the same day.

Another flight departed for Lisbon on Sunday, returning to Mozambique on Monday.

The flights serve to support repatriation after European Union (EU) member states decided to temporarily suspend air connections with seven countries in southern Africa, including Mozambique, following the identification of the Omicron variant of the coronavirus, in South Africa.

Passengers of Portuguese nationality, holders of a residence permit in Portugal, EU nationals, nationals of Schengen Area states and members of their respective families may board the Maputo-Lisbon flight.

Also allowed to board are third country nationals legally resident in an EU member state, or in transit to their country of origin or legal residence, in addition to others who fall into ‘humanitarian situations’.

The reservation must be made directly with TAP, but the general consulate of Portugal in Maputo as well as the general consulate in Beira are available to anyone who has “difficulty making a reservation” and has “proven reason for travelling, for serious health reasons or permanent departure from the country”.

On flights to Lisbon, all passengers, vaccinated or not, will have to present a negative result of an RT-PCR test or similar nucleic acid amplification test (NAAT).

“The test must be carried out within 72 hours of departure,” and, as an alternative, passengers may take “an antigen test (TRAg) up to 48 hours before departure”.

On the Lisbon-Maputo route, all passengers over the age of 11 must present proof of a negative PCR test, carried out within 72 hours prior to departure.

Exceptions to the mandatory submission of Covid-19 tests are those holding an EU Covid-19 digital certificate of recovery, valid for 180 days, as well as children under the age of 12 years.

“Passengers on flights originating in Mozambique and those who, regardless of origin, have been in Mozambique, South Africa, Botswana, Eswatini, Lesotho, Namibia or Zimbabwe in the 14 days prior to their arrival in Portugal, must comply with a period of 14-day prophylactic isolation on arrival, at home or in a place indicated by the health authorities,” the embassy bulletin adds.

Upon arrival in Portugal, all passengers will be forwarded to “a location inside the airport for the purpose of carrying out a new test” NAAT or rapid antigen test, “to screen for infection by SARS-CoV-2 and subsequent genomic sequencing, as well as for the determination of prophylactic isolation by the health authorities,” the embassy concludes.

Source: Diário Económico Mozambique