SARS-CoV-2 infection rates in air passengers arriving in Qatar

Adeel A Butt; Anas M Al-Halabi; Hafedh Ghazouani; Mohamed Ben Haj Rhouma; Houssein H Ayoub; Naseer A Masoodi; Abdelsalam M Borham; Ahmed A Hommos; Roberto Bertollini; Hiam Chemaitelly; Laith J Abu Raddad; Abdul-Badi Abou-Samra

doi:10.1093/jtm/taab163

SARS-CoV-2 infection rates in air passengers arriving in Qatar

J Travel Med. 2021 Dec 29;28(8):taab163. doi: 10.1093/jtm/taab163.

Affiliations

¹ Quality Department, Hamad Medical Corporation, Doha, Qatar.
² Department of Medicine, Weill Cornell Medicine, New York USA.
³ Department of Population Health Sciences, Weill Cornell Medicine Qatar, Doha, Qatar.
⁴ Department of Mathematics, Statistics, and Physics, Qatar University, Doha, Qatar.
⁵ Ministry of Public Health Qatar, Doha, Qatar.

Abstract

Among 352 174 airline travelers entering Qatar, 8236 (2.34%) tested positive on or within the first seven days of arrival, with 3789 (1.08%) testing positive at the time of arrival and the remaining 4447 (1.26%) testing negative at arrival but positive 1 week later.

Keywords: COVID-19; Qatar; SARS-CoV-2; quarantine; returning travellers; travel.

MeSH terms

Air Travel*
COVID-19*
Humans
Qatar / epidemiology
Quarantine
SARS-CoV-2
Travel