Jetstar blamed for Melbourne passengers leaving Sydney airport without COVID screening – Sydney Morning Herald

“Airline staff, contrary to agreed protocols, allowed passengers to leave the gate area before the health staff had concluded screening a prior flight,” the statement said.
“As a result of this breach, flights will now not be allowed to land in NSW until NSW Health teams are in place to screen them.”
Health officials scrambled through the night to contact the remaining 48 passengers. The department confirmed that screening had since been arranged for 45 passengers, while three had been referred to police, including one who had refused to be screened.
NSW Chief Health Officer Dr Kerry Chant said on Wednesday that the airport had “now put in protocols to ensure that health teams are there and are able to do the screening and no one is allowed to disembark before that happens.”
In a statement, Jetstar acknowledged the issue and said it had refined its disembarkation procedures “to prevent this situation occurring again”.
“We assisted by locating passengers in the terminal who had disembarked without being screened and provided the aircraft manifest to the department to assist them in contacting passengers,” the statement said.
Sydneysider Jacinda Fermanis was one of the 48 passengers who left the airport without screening. She awoke to an email and phone calls from NSW Health early on Wednesday morning, advising that she should have been screened at the airport and instructing her to attend a drive-through screening that day.
“We are really sorry but unfortunately airline staff mistakenly allowed passengers to leave the gate before they had been screened by health staff,” the email said.
“As you have come from Melbourne you need to be screened. If you are unable to get to summer hill

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