Emergency simulation exercise for coronavirus at Athens international airport

Greece’s National Emergency Centre (EKAB) conducted yesterday a large-scale simulation and preparedness exercise at Athens international airport with the General Hospital for thoracic diseases “Sotiria” for the treatment of a suspected case of 2019-nCoV coronavirus.
According to the simulation case, the passengers arrived on a flight at Athens International Airport “Eleftherios Venizelos” and the pilot, shortly before arrival, informed the Control Tower of the condition of 3 passengers suspected of having the virus. The Pilot also informed the Control Tower that the crew had isolated the passengers in question, in the last section of the aircraft.

In turn, the Control Tower informed the Airport Operations Centre (ASOC) and the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) of the incident, which in turn informed the Air Force, the National Public Health Organization (ESA) and the National Emergency Centre (EKAB).

For the purposes of the exercise, the EKAB Airport Emergency Medical Aid Service (YEIVA-EKAB) contacted EKAB (166) directly and requested ambulances to dispatch the infected passengers. Following the in-service consultation of the EKAB Coordination Centre with the Centre for Health Care Operations (KEPY-EKAB), three (3) ambulances were dispatched to Athens International Airport “Eleftherios Venizelos” to collect the passengers suspected of having contracting the virus and transported them to the General Hospital for thoracic diseases “Sotiria”.