As much as airlines are encouraging people to fly again, here’s a prime example of why flying anywhere is probably not the best idea right now.
158 passengers on an SAS flight between Nice, France and Oslo, Norway are in the midst of observing a relatively sudden and unexpected 10-day quarantine. Why? They arrived in Norway a minute after the coronavirus rules changed.
Norway is one of those smart countries that requires visitors arriving from other nations to quarantine for 10 days if said country is in what they consider to be the “red zone” – more than 20 new cases of coronavirus per 100,000 inhabitants over the last 14 days.
On August 6th, Norway announced that France, Switzerland, Monaco and the Czech Republic were being added back to the “red zone,” effective midnight of August 7th. SAS was aware of the update and made plans for the Boeing 737, which was scheduled to land at 12:10am, to do everything in its power to arrive early, so their passengers could avoid the quarantine. Passengers were made aware of the plan.
The plane left Nice at 9:30pm and the pilots did indeed gain some time; 9 minutes.
So they arrived at 12:01am, which was 1 minute after the new quarantine started…and everyone had to quarantine for 10 days.
Can you imagine being a passenger on that flight? Never mind the fact that they made reservations however long ago. They were on the plane, knowing that a quarantine, announced only a few hours beforehand, might be imminent. They thought they were going to arrive in time…and then they don’t.
That’s just country to country, but it’s happening state-to-state, too. Granted, most states in the U.S. have way too high virus numbers to even worry about such things. But some states that have managed to get or keep their respective numbers low are constantly updating their “who needs to quarantine upon entry” rules based on how other states are doing with the virus.
So besides the risks of being in the crowded airport, the lack of social distancing on the plane (super duper HEPA filters notwithstanding – exhaled coronacootie breath still has to travel to get to the HEPA filters), and the threat of the maskless guy shoulder to shoulder with me going on a “No Fly” list in the future because he’s still maskless right now, a sudden change in quarantine rules is another reason why Joe and I won’t fly until this country has a handle on this coronacrapola.
#stayhealthy #staysafe #washyourhands #wearamask
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This post first appeared on Your Mileage May Vary
