On the threshold of a new wave: the detection of returnees at airports is shocking

When you can travel in such a way that you do not have to isolate yourself for 14 days after returning to Lithuania, you can check the website of the National Center for Public Health. Countries with a coronavirus infection of 100,000 are clearly listed here. The population does not exceed the dangerous limit. More recently, Belgium, for example, has been on the list of those dangerous countries. However, this time the mission route spanned Latvia, Denmark, two different airports in Germany, and of course Vilnius airport.

Procedures – before the flight

Part of the travel preparation procedures started before boarding the plane. It turns out that neighboring Latvia requires everyone crossing the border by train, ship, and plane to fill out special questionnaires indicating which countries were visited, where they sat, contact details, citizenship, and home to return from Latvia. (or in Latvia) address.

This questionnaire should be sent by email to the Latvian Public Health Center. However, Latvians do not rely solely on the benevolence of passengers. You are asked to repeat the same procedure while sitting on the plane: if you took the completed form with you, excellent, if not, the form is provided in Russian, English and Latvian and the stewards are vigilant to ensure that all are collected the complete documents.

Since the flight from Vilnius is operated by the Latvian company AirBaltic, passengers are also advised in advance that if their body temperature exceeds 37.8 degrees, they cannot fly.

Latvia is committed to protecting them for a month, so if you were sitting on a plane next to a person diagnosed with a coronavirus, you would receive a call and a message.

Peace of mind

Start the journey at the Vilnius airport early in the morning, completely calm. As soon as you enter the airport building in Vilnius, visitors are directed in lanes to pass by the employee, who checks to see if the person who entered has a ticket or is in a hurry to check in. Everyone here is required to wear protective masks, because they are mandatory at airports.

However, temperature measurement, such as that actively practiced in eastern countries to prevent people with a body temperature above 37.3 degrees, is not here: it is enough to show a document and a ticket, and you are already in a safe area of ​​the airport. However, the special situation recalls the instructions to wear masks, chair decals to be kept at a safe distance, strips on the floor that indicate the distance to wait to board the plane.

Pending flight with Latvian airline AirBaltic. And while it is said that people with temperatures will not accept, temperature is not measured when boarding an airplane either: passengers are trusted and people are expected to behave responsibly.

The masks are also distributed on airplanes.

Still, there are changes. More than one airline has announced that it will provide passengers with protective masks to change, for example after meals, as well as 75 percent. to disinfect alcohol-soaked hands and surrounding surfaces.

Climbing is also different. As before, business class customers and passengers with young children are the first to board the plane, but all remaining passengers are boarded according to their seating position. The plane is loaded from back to front so that people do not have to pass through others and possibly transmit the infection to more people.

It is true that not all passengers are satisfied with the current procedure, because the airlines that have suffered large losses do not limit the number of passengers and are happy if the plane is full. So, despite strict controls, efforts to limit the distances between passengers, avoid meetings, the plane has to sit next to completely unknown and new people.

A passenger is particularly dissatisfied with this and tries to find a free place where no one is sitting. However, there are none, even if the hostesses who ask for help can do nothing and put the woman in such a way that there is no other passenger by her side, so she has to accept the possible risks.

Lots of disinfectant and no controls

The first country I reach is Holland and its airport in Amsterdam. I have been here many times and in normal conditions: the airport of the Dutch capital is very busy and crowded. Now, much calmer, less passengers, they all wear masks.

The airport is also trying to keep as much distance between people as possible, so there seems to be plenty of space in cafes, for example, but most of the tables are loaded with “Please don’t sit here” tables. . When trying to put a cup of tea in one, the airport employee shows up immediately and asks to move to another free table.

There are plastic screens in many places near the seats, which separate one passenger from another. Eastern countries have adopted a similar approach to control the spread of the coronavirus in public places. Also, where to go, inscriptions that request distance, remembering that wearing masks is mandatory, instructions for disinfecting hands. The disinfectant is abundant in every corner, both in cafeterias and in other areas of the airport.

The situation is similar in Hannover, at the German airport, which is the final destination of the trip. While flying here on a plane, I also receive information indicating that if I return to Germany from abroad, I have 14 days to isolate myself, avoid contact with others, not go to public places, etc. But it is unknown what happens if you are only a foreigner visiting the country.

And although there is no shortage of disinfectant in Germany, there is not even a device that can be inserted into the hands and the machine sprays the liquid without any contact or contact, people check the temperature of the people who arrived, ask who came, they check movement and collect data. Through the airport gate you can go directly into the city without any major checks.

Germans do not allow anxiety to take hold

If the number of people in Amsterdam’s cafes is limited, there will be even more freedom in Berlin, from where the flight back to the Baltic awaits.

Passengers waiting for their flight land in coffee shops where no one seems to care about the safe distances. While waiting at the checkout, there are still lines on the floor at how far to wait your turn, but the tables are next to each other, other passengers constantly pass by and have to sit very close. Many take off their protective masks when they eat here and sit still for a while, forgetting about them, and enjoy the opportunity to be without any face shield.

In Latvia: the strictest

Return flight to Lithuania with a stopover in Riga, Latvia. You enter the country after submitting a completed special form and, as soon as you leave, you receive information that if you return from a country where the number of coronavirus infections exceeds “safety,” you should isolate yourself and avoid social contact.

This information is constantly heard through the speakers at the airport. Stickers on chairs and walls also remind us of the mandatory use of masks. And Latvians do not rely only on the conscience of the passengers. Officials verify how passengers follow the rules.

Here, two uniformed officers enter and “scan” the faces of the passengers and pause when they see that a man is not wearing a mask over his mouth and nose, which hangs loosely from his ear. Officials who have already turned to the man note that he is eating. In such cases, the mask can be removed for a short time, so women do not feed the disobedient passenger.

in lithuania – chaos

After landing in Vilnius, there is slight chaos. Passengers are directed to the baggage hall through long corridors of the airport, and here, there were several blocked exits; now they can only leave one. And when they will make sure to stop at two employees of the National Center for Public Health, who are trying to control the flow of people and give them all a paper with information on what to do when they return to Lithuania from abroad, they periodically ask if people have come from outside Belgium.

Despite good wishes, controlling people in a hurry at home is difficult.

“Don’t you need Germany?” Asks a passenger, and after hearing a positive answer, he rushes through the door, but forgets to mention that he just visited Latvia and got off a Latvian plane. There are dozens of those passengers, some avoiding the crash and ignoring what the employees are saying. Temperature measurement is also not available here, no one collects contact information.

The fact that the procedure is flawed and is a weak control for the spread of the coronavirus is a testament to a truly surprising case. A man who returns from a country in the European Union that is on the list of those who must visit in isolation asks what to do with it.

“Isolation is mandatory for you for 14 days. Here, take the information, it is written here that you must complete the form and register within 24 hours and then isolate yourself,” says the employee and addresses another passenger with questions.

A man in need of isolation shrugs, picks up a brochure and rushes through the airport gate. He was not obliged to leave his contact details or register, therefore, if a person would actually follow the isolation rules and avoid social contact to verify: there is no hope or hope that the person will not break the rules for fear of a possible fine if it turns out to be infected and ignoring the order. others infected