Air India cabin crew member tests positive for coronavirus; admitted to Mumbai hospital

An Air India cabin crew member, who was part of the team that operated a Newark-Mumbai flight last month, has tested positive for coronavirus and has been admitted to a hospital here, a source said on Thursday.

This is at least the second instance of an Air India group staff testing positive. Last week, a woman customer care of the airline's ground handling subsidiary AIASL was admitted to a hospital after she had coronavirus infection.

"Our cabin crew member has been admitted to the Kasturba BMC hospital in south-central Mumbai after she was tested positive for coronavirus infection. She had operated Air india's Mumbai's flight from Newark (the US) on March 20," the source said.

According to the source, efforts are on to shift her to a private hospital.

When asked for comments on the cabin crew member testing positive for coronavirus, an Air India spokesperson said, "We would not like to make any comment on this".

Air India Chairman and Managing Director Rajiv Bansal told media on Thursday that there there have been some cases of ground staff who fell ill. "Luckily, they have all tested negative," he said.

"Our medical team was there to assist them. Our cabin crew have been advised home quarantine after undertaking any flight.

"Since we are operating very few flights, we have a large number of cabin crew and cockpit crew available. So, we are able to provide them with that gap so that they can be under home quarantine and only then come to do their duty on the next flight. Every kind of support is being given to them," he said.

Regarding one of its staff being infected by coronavirus, AIASL CEO A K Sharma, on March 30, said it was suspected that the woman staff contracted the infection during the course of her duty."