EU HEALTHY GATEWAYS JOINT ACTION PREPAREDNESS AND ACTION AT POINTS OF ENTRY (PORTS, AIRPORTS, GROUND CROSSINGS)

Air transport

06  Air transport

 

Work Package leaders: 
Folkhälsomyndigheten, The Public Health Agency of Sweden (FOHM), Sweden
University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf (UKE)/Zentralinstitut für Arbeitsmedizin und Maritime Medizin/Institute for Occupational and Maritime Medicine), Germany

 

The Air Transport work package consists of actions for preparedness at airports and the air transport sector.

Objectives:

  • Establishing the air transport component of a network for communication and rapid notification in the event of cross-border health risks
  • Facilitating Joint Action countries in monitoring core capacities at PoE related to air transport
  • Producing best practice catalogues, guidelines and validated action plans for air transport, covering all types of health threats, contingency planning, risk communication and advice for event management

Main tasks:

  • An expert Working Group for Airports will be established.
  • A network of professionals experienced in dealing with public health events at airports will be established. This network will communicate through forums to be activated ad-hoc in response to specific events.
  • A survey to identify best practices on: core capacities implementation at airports; event detection, surveillance and management; contingency planning; inspection of aircrafts for vectors; the current legal framework/practices for contact tracing of public health events on airplanes.
  • Technical content for training material to be used for the face-to-face training course titled “Preparedness and response to public health events at airports”.
  • A tool for contingency plan development and assessment for airports based on best practice identification results.
  • Table top/simulation exercise for event management at airports, by using existing tools and materials produced through the AIRSAN project.
  • A model MoU, outlining rules of cooperation among the different competent authorities at airports, at local level, that must be involved in the response to public health events.
  • SOPs for specific vector surveillance and control activities at airports, for the implementation of integrated vector control programmes will be developed.
  • The airport component of the web-based network that will be used to communicate and notify rapidly in case of cross-border risks to health at points of entry.

Deliverables:

  • Strengthening core capacities at airports through the production of: best practices on core capacities implementation for event detection, surveillance and management and contingency planning; table top /simulation exercises; tool for contingency plan development and assessment (draft version), advice/guidance for preparedness and response to the outbreak of COVID-19.