COVID-19 and public health related measures (including CAPSCA)
The
Collaborative Arrangement for the Prevention and Management of Public Health Events in Civil Aviation (CAPSCA) has increased membership of ICAO States and industry partnerships during the COVID-19 pandemic, resulting in enhanced coordination and collaboration.between CAPSCA partners, CAPSCA Member States and the ICAO Medical Provisions Study Group (MPSG) The following activities specifically related to COVID-19 were performed:
– regular sharing of public health and aviation guidance;
– developed the Public Health Corridor (PHC) concept to ensure continued flight operations with minimal restrictions on aircraft operations, to prevent the spread of COVID-19 through air travel, protect the health and safety of crew and passengers, and restore passenger confidence in air travel;
– surveyed Member States to identify best public health practices and implementation challenges related to repatriation and humanitarian flights – regional distribution, and testing and quarantine practices (State letter AN 5/28-20/97 refers);
– developed aviation-specific guidance materials
– coordinated with the Joint Aviation Authority Training Organisation (JAA TO) and Member States to make available and accelerate training through the CAPSCA online training package to increase the pool of subject matter experts to enable the assessment and monitoring of public health measures implementation in States;
– developed the ICAO PHC online course: additional informal capacity building through several CAPSCA and PHC webinars, regional CAPSCA meetings, World Health Organization (WHO) regional training activities and participating in several online conferences and seminars;
– developed the CAPSCA process and flowchart for PHC validation to facilitate implementation of public health measures within the aviation sector by airlines (International Air Transport Association (IATA) Health Standard Checklist for Airline Operators), airports (Airports Council International (ACI) Airport Health Accreditation) and State authorities (CAPSCA COVID-19 Assessment Checklist);
– developed the
Manual on Testing and Cross-border Risk Management (Doc 10152)
– developed the Implementation Package (iPack) Establishing a Public Health Corridor.The iPack includes associated procedures and relevant tools that are regularly updated in view of the latest scientific developments; and
– developed aviation-specific COVID-19 tools, e.g. PHC forms, public health measures checklists, templates, decision-making aids, reporting tools, etc., which were included in the Take-off: Guidance for Air Travel through the COVID-19 Public Health Crisis )TOGD),
PHC iPack and CAPSCA website.
