Health regulators ease Covid protocols on flights, in airports

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Anvisa, Brazil’s federal health regulatory agency, has once again cleared inflight service on domestic flights. It had been prohibited since March 2020 as a move to avoid contamination of passengers by the coronavirus. The new norms allow passengers to remove their face masks to eat on board.

Companies have been instructed to perform meal services as fast as possible and quickly remove trash — with special attention to material that was in contact with passengers’ saliva.

Additionationally, Anvisa decided that airports can once again use boarding buses at full capacity — instead of capping the number of people per vehicle when transporting passengers between terminals and planes.

On April 22, the government issued an ordinance declaring the end of the Covid health emergency — which will come into force on May 22. The move comes as the country’s seven-day average of new daily Covid deaths has dropped to its lowest levels in two years.