Dubai: Passengers from India to Dubai were stopped again after COVID-19 RT_PCR test results from three more labs were rejected this week, airline sources told Gulf News on Monday.

In late September, hundreds of Dubai-bound passengers were stranded in India after pre-travel test results from four labs were rejected.

At least two Indian airlines, Air India Express and Spicejet, have announced that pre-departure COVID-19 test reports from three more Indian labs will not be accepted for travel from India to Dubai.

With this, the total number of Indian labs, results from which will not be accepted in Dubai, has gone up to seven.

As first reported by Gulf News on September 27, results from Suryam Lab in Jaipur, Micro Health Laboratory in cities of Kerala, Dr. P. Bhasin Pathlabs in Delhi and Noble Diagnostic Centre in Delhi were rejected in the case of Dubai-bound passengers.

Indian airlines have added Aza Diagnostic Centre, 360 Diagnostic and Health Services and Aara Clinical Laboratories to the list as per the instructions from the authorities in Dubai.

The freshly blacklisted labs are located in Kozhikode in Kerala, Noida in Delhi and Chennai in Tamil Nadu respectively.

Sources said passengers, who were to travel with test results from these labs, were also being stopped after the fresh announcement.

In September, AIE had offered a free date changing option to the passengers stranded due to the issue. It is not immediately clear if the same has been offered to the passengers who have been affected due to the same issue again.

Official sources had earlier told Gulf News that the labs were blacklisted because of concerns over false negative reports. “We have been given to understand that there have been cases in which these labs had issued negative results to people who tested positive on their arrival here,” Neeraj Agrawal, consul for Press, Information and Culture at the Indian Consulate in Dubai, had said.

Following this, Indian airlines have been advising Dubai-bound passengers to seek COVID test results from labs approved by UAE-based Pure Health,