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A second Australian has died from coronavirus in India – a solar industry pioneer and Sydney businessman, Govind Kant.
On Tuesday Trina Solar said its assistant director for Australia, who was 47, had died on 16 May at a hospital in Delhi after contracting the virus at the end of April. He had travelled to India for family reasons earlier in the month.
“Our deepest condolences go to his wife, two daughters and other family members,” the company said.
“This is a significant loss to Trina Solar and mere words cannot express the heartfelt sorrow we all feel upon Govind’s passing and we will provide necessary assistance to his family in this mourn period and we pray his soul may rest in peace.”
This follows the death in India of an Australian permanent resident earlier in the month.
Meanwhile, a review of pre-flight test results for the first post-pause India repatriation flight has validated the results given to passengers.
More than 40 people who tested positive pre-flight along with about 30 of their close contacts were barred from returning on Saturday.
But concerns have been raised that some passengers were barred from the flight due to false positive tests.
Qantas said all of the positive test results had been rerun at the weekend under additional medical supervision, and the outcomes were the same. They included some weak positives that may have been interpreted as negative results by other laboratories.
The passengers who tested negative and ultimately flew on the 14 May repatriation flight were also given a rapid antigen test before boarding, and tested again by Northern Territory Health in their first 24 hours at Howard Springs.
Both sets of tests validated the original results, with only one additional passenger testing positive at Howard Springs, suggesting this person had contracted Covid before India but had yet to develop the infection.
“Considering all of these data points, Qantas and the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade do not believe that any passengers booked on this flight were denied boarding in error,” the airline said.
But Qantas said there had been some problems with the testing in India. The tests had been conducted at the quarantine hotel rather than a Covid-19 clinic and because of this the medical provider used by Qantas – which had proper accreditation – had sent the tests for processing at another laboratory, known as CRL, rather than using its own labs.
CRL had a temporary suspension of its accreditation for non-Covid tests but was cleared to do Covid testing for the Indian government.
Despite the tests passing subsequent checks, a different lab will be used for future pre-flight testing to ensure confidence in the system.
Qantas’s director of medical services, Ian Hosegood, said the airline had been working hard to design a system to keep staff, passengers and the Australian public safe.
“Managing a Covid testing regime in India at the moment is inherently difficult but these results have been checked again and we’re confident they are right,” he said.
He said weak positive results could mean someone was either in the very early stages of Covid or could reflect a prior infection they may not even know they had.
Qantas is now working with the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade to prioritise passengers who were unable to board the flight to take up a future flight, once the mandatory 14-day period a positive test has elapsed.
The next repatriation flight is due later in the week.