Air ambulance services operating on the African continent are seeing an uptick in medevacs linked to Covid-19 and are adjusting to a number of difficulties in transporting infected patients, both within Africa and outside the continent.
"In the air ambulance industry, Covid-19 has had a huge impact," says Fraser Lamond of Air Rescue Africa, a Johannesburg-based company operating two Hawker aircraft.
Typical clients for air ambulance services in Africa include workers for non-governmental organisations, corporations, tourists and governments, although this has changed with permission to move infectious patients becoming more difficult to obtain.
Some African governments have reportedly employed air ambulances to provide medevacs for officials suffering from Covid-19.
A typical Covid-19 medical evacuation by aircraft ranges from between $60,000 to $100,000 for taking a patient from west Africa to South Africa or Europe, depending on the aircraft employed, according to industry estimates.
