TRAVELLING ABROAD DURING THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC

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TRAVELLING ABROAD DURING THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC

Larissa Bona • 16 February 2021

DISCLAIMER: This article does not intend to give any medical advice nor technical opinion about COVID-19 as I am not a doctor nor a qualified expert about the matter. This text is simply a testimony of my personal experience with travelling abroad by plane during the pandemic and the cautionary measures I have decided to take to protect myself from the virus after some online research at some expert websites. All the links to my research are listed at the end of this post. If you want advice about the matter, please, check a professional and do your own research.

Taking a FLIGHT to TRAVEL ABROAD is never the first step on an INTERNATIONAL TRIP. Indeed, whenever someone decides to travel to another country, no matter your motivation (leisure, work, migration, etc.), there is a previous stage of planning that needs to be dealt with before boarding an AIRPLANE.

However, in times like these, when we are facing the worst global PANDEMIC since the Spanish Flu (1918-1919), it just felt right talking about how challenging it was for me to take a plane to come to Mexico.

The first obstacle I have faced was the outbreak of the PANDEMIC itself because the WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION (WHO) recognised COVID-19 as a global health crisis just three weeks before my FLIGHT.

Consequently, I was forced to cancel my trip, not only because there was not a lot of knowledge about the virus back then and the borders of the countries were closed, but some of my family members who were supposed to travel with me were in the high-risk group.

I have waited until July 2020 for things to settle down and re-booked my ticket to travel in August 2020 (alone this time).

Yet, due to public health restrictions in both Brazil and Mexico, and probably lack of passengers to offset the airline costs, my FLIGHT was cancelled three more times before I could finally board on an AIRPLANE on 17th September 2020.

So, once my FLIGHT was confirmed, my main concern was taking all measures to make sure I would not get infected during the trip.

As my home State in Brazil is Piauí, which does not have an INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT, I would have to take two domestic flights inside the Brazilian territory before I could take the INTERNATIONAL FLIGHT to Mexico.

This meant I was supposed to be confined in enclosed spaces with strangers for long hours and I was going to spend a lot of time at four different AIRPORTS too, that is, there were several chances of exposition to the virus.

Hence, I started researching online what I could do to protect myself, not only because I obviously did not want to get sick, especially in another country and after not finding any TRAVEL INSURANCE that would cover COVID-19 expenses, but also because one of the members of my host family is 81 years old. So, I had to be extra careful.

Even though the main advice found in my investigation was "AVOIDING AIRPLANES AND AIRPORTS DURING THE PANDEMIC IF YOU COULD", I have found very helpful information for my trip.

When it comes to AIRPORTS, the general instructions found online was to maintain SOCIAL DISTANCING, wearing MASKS, and avoiding public toilet.

Larissa Bona wearing a face shield and a mask

Therefore, during my whole time at the AIRPORTS, I have never removed my MASK and my FACE SHIELD, I have always kept my distance from other people, especially in queues, and I refrained from going to the toilet because the aerosol spray from the flushes could spread the virus in the air.

I just went to the toilet at the AIRPORT only one time, in São Paulo, so I made sure to be wearing sunglasses to protect my eyes, washed my hands thoroughly, and disinfected my handbag with SANITISER after leaving the restroom.

I must stress out that the boarding and disembarking queues were very well-run in all flights with proper SOCIAL DISTANCING, except when I arrived in Brasília, where the passengers were all huddled in a bus to go from the AIRPLANE to the AIRPORT.

By the way, talking about AIRPLANES, I have discovered in my research that the air within the aircraft cabins can be cleaner than an operating theatre due to the HEPA FILTERS.

Indeed, HEPA is an acronym for HIGH-EFFICIENCY PARTICULATE AIR and these filters can capture 99.5% of all particular pollution, including viruses and germs.

Besides it, the ventilation system of most aircraft allows the air of the cabin to be completely renovated every three minutes with a blend of filtered air with fresh outside air.

This was surprisingly good news because they meant that the aircraft cabins’ were not as dangerous as I was expecting them to be.

However, it must be highlighted that the WHO states that "adequate ventilation is just ONE of the preventive measures", which means that other measures like SOCIAL DISTANCING, wearing MASKS and other PERSONAL PROTECTIVE EQUIPMENT (PPE) and HAND HYGIENE should also be adopted.

In my case, I have travelled wearing a MASK (which was demanded by all airlines I have flown with during this trip) and a FACE SHIELD, which I have only removed to eat.

I have also carried a little SOAP (just in case my HAND SANITISERS were not allowed onboard) and a canister of ALCOHOL ISOPROPYL 70% WIPES in my handbag to clean my hands and disinfect surfaces in the AIRPLANES and the AIRPORTS, as door handles, toilet flushes, seatbelts, armrests, tray tables, etc.

I just went to the toilet once, during the ten hours flight from São Paulo to Mexico City, when there was no gathering nearby the toilets and I have disinfected everything with my ALCOHOL WIPES before using it. I have carefully washed my hands too.

Concerning SOCIAL DISTANCING in the AIRPLANES, unfortunately, I have only managed to properly have it in my two hours FLIGHT from Teresina to Brasília, as all middle seats from all rows were empty.

Unfortunately, the same did not happen in my FLIGHTS from Brasília to São Paulo and from São Paulo to Mexico City, which were both packed and this was the only thing that bothered me. Apart from this, I must say that everything went well on all FLIGHTS.

I cannot say the same about the IMMIGRATION QUEUE when I arrived in Mexico. Though the AIRPORT staff was taking the temperature of everyone, there was no proper SOCIAL DISTANCING and no ventilation in the room, which was full of people from several FLIGHTS and countries.

After I finally collected my baggage and met my friend, who was waiting for me outside the AIRPORT, I changed my clothes at the parking lot and took a "shower" with an antiseptic disinfectant, before voluntarily self-isolating for fifteen days.

This two weeks quarantine was not demanded by Mexican authorities, but I have decided to do so to protect my hosts from any eventual COVID-19 infection during the trip.

Have I overreacted with my self-protection measures? I do not know. Perhaps yes, perhaps not. But what I do know is that I have arrived safe and sound and very healthy in Mexico and that is what has mattered to me. As the saying goes, it is better to be safe than sorry.

*My trip has happened in September 2020 and a lot of things have changed since then. For example, when I came to Mexico, no testing was required to enter the country but if I wanted to return today to Brazil, I would have to present a negative test for COVID-19 within a certain deadline to be allowed to fly. So, if you are going to travel abroad during the pandemic, please, make sure to check both the website of your airline and of the Embassy of the country you are travelling to, in advance, to verify whether it has and which are its entry requirements related to the pandemic.

REFERENCES

https://smartairfilters.com/en/blog/what-is-hepa-filter-how-hepa-filter-work/

https://www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/novel-coronavirus-2019/question-and-answers-hub/q-a-detail/travel-q-a-for-general-public

https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/how-risky-is-using-a-public-bathroom-during-the-pandemic-2020071420556

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