"In the logic of diplomatic reciprocity between the two countries, the Ministry of Health, through the National Institute of Health Research, conducted a Molecular Biology test to passengers [of TAAG's humanitarian flight], and concluded with seven positives," reads the statement issued this Sunday by the ministry.
In that note, the government assures that "all the information regarding the results (negative and positive) was passed to the Embassy of São Tomé in Angola, with a ban on the departure of the seven infected, who would wait for the specific orientation of the Rapid Response Team".
"Today, reality shows that this orientation was not observed and at this moment a process of inquiry with the authorities involved is being established", concludes the Ministry of Health, which states that it was aware of the situation at the arrival of the flight to São Tomé and Príncipe by the media.
The Ministry of Health clarifies "national and international public opinion that in light of the restriction measures in the control and prevention of covid-19, no one leaves or arrives in Angola without the negative test of SARS-CoV-2 at the RT-PCR base, and this orientation is mandatory at the 4 de Fevereiro International Airport, in Luanda".
The Sao Tomean authorities have meanwhile increased the number of infected passengers on the same flight to 13.
At least 45 passengers who returned on October 7 to Sao Tome and Principe on a humanitarian flight from Luanda were quarantined until the results of the covid-19 tests they were subjected to at the airport in the capital of Sao Tome, a government source from Sao Tome and Principe told the Lusa agency at the time.
"We try to take all the sanitary measures to avoid the least possible probability of contamination," said San Tomean Health Minister Edgar Neves.
"São Tomé and Príncipe, with the epidemiological framework it has, needs to take the best possible precautions so that there is no outbreak that could alter that framework," added the governor.
Edgar Neves, who personally went to the airport to monitor the application of health measures imposed on passengers entering the country, said that "all passengers were tested upon arrival, awaiting results.
"Depending on the test results, they will be sent to the different destinations, from the campaign hospital, to the hotel units where we will do the institutional quarantine", explained the Minister of Health.
The humanitarian flight, from TAAG to São Tomé transported citizens of this country who had been detained for more than seven months in Angola because of the pandemic and the capital San Tome took more than 75 passengers, Angolans and San Tomeans, living in Angola, who had also been prevented from returning.
