WHO has recently said that, the risk of COVID-19 spreading on flights appears very low but cannot be ruled out, despite studies showing only a small number of cases.
In a statement to Reuters WHO said: “In-flight transmission is possible but the risk appears to be very low, given the volume of travellers and the small number of case reports. The fact that transmission is not widely documented in the published literature does not, however, mean it does not happen.”
Southwest Airlines and United Airlines have both said that recent studies had found that the risk was virtually non-existent.
Global airlines body IATA said on Oct. 8 that only 44 potential cases of flight-related transmission had been identified among 1.2 billion travellers this year, or one in every 27 million passengers.
Dr David Freedman, a U.S. infectious diseases specialist, said last week he declined to take part in an IATA briefing on the risks because a key assertion about the improbability of catching COVID-19 on planes was based on bad math.
