61 people on two flights to NL from SA test positive for Covid. How?

[Tryingtryingandtrying]

Aren't they supposed to test before flying? Or are they all vaccinated and therefore not mandatory, but they have chosen not to? This is a really high number, much higher than I would have thought, must be pushing 10% of passengers and that is before it has spread to the others?

I wondered the same.

www.reuters.com/world/europe/passengers-south-africa-face-wait-covid-19-testing-amsterdam-2021-11-26/
Thought I had best add a link

Someone on the other site said maybe it's to do with people only needing negative lft within 24 hours before flight, not pcr. So they didn't pick up the positive cases but the pcr at the destination confirmed positive cases.

The LFT makes sense for a few but that many?

I don't know if vax gets you out of testing for those flights, but I know it does at our local theatre and I think it's one of the most pointless rules we've had - certainly up there with not being allowed to sit down in an empty field.

Either make everyone show a negative test or don't bother and stop the bloody pantomime, because that's exactly what it is.

Isn't it likely many of them are part of a group? Perhaps attended a wedding or a conference?

@neithernever

The LFT makes sense for a few but that many?

I don't know if vax gets you out of testing for those flights, but I know it does at our local theatre and I think it's one of the most pointless rules we've had - certainly up there with not being allowed to sit down in an empty field.

Either make everyone show a negative test or don't bother and stop the bloody pantomime, because that's exactly what it is.

Why is it a pantomime? Unvaccinated people are much more likely to test positive than vaccinated people. Why shouldn't they have to at least do a test?

The LFT makes sense for a few but that many?

Yes I could udnerstand if a few slipped through, but 61 people getting a negative result, who then test positive less than 24 hours later is quite concerning.

Apparently double vaxxed don’t have to test at all preflight from SA.

Only certain airlines require testing before a flight.

According to the Guardian live thread (and linked tweets), all 600-odd pax from the 2 flights were held together in an unventilated space while testing and processing took place, with no mask requirement and very few wearing masks. The 61 who then tested positive will be isolated in hotels, but the rest (having tested negative) are expected to isolate at home.

What could possibly go wrong?

I'm surprised that there's no safeguard there at all. Maybe there is a chance they have been to wedding or something. Otherwise you could assume that 10% of people in SA could be positive. Small numbers I know, but if all randoms rather than linked....

@jessycarr So high chance of transmission within the group

My DP just got back from SA - feeling thankful that he hadn’t booked his tickets a couple of days later! He didn’t have to test pre return flight (although he did on the way out). It seems the UK doesn’t give a shit and just lets people in Willy nilly. Apparently he did have to show “intention to book a test” or some bullshit, but having already had contact with me, his kids his ex, and anyone he’s passed on the way home, the “intention to test” is a pretty pointless requirement. He’s also been invited to a big two day meeting including a social evening next week for work. HR has advised him that it might look better if he doesn’t go! If he does go and turns out he has the SA variant or indeed any other form of covid that could be a lot of ruined Christmases. All for the sake of a bloody test. The whole thing is a joke.

@JessyCarr

According to the Guardian live thread (and linked tweets), all 600-odd pax from the 2 flights were held together in an unventilated space while testing and processing took place, with no mask requirement and very few wearing masks. The 61 who then tested positive will be isolated in hotels, but the rest (having tested negative) are expected to isolate at home.

What could possibly go wrong?

It's just staggering how they just keep continuing to get everything so wrong. Completely baffling. They will have now infected lots of people who likely would have been fine if they hadn't been forced to stand in an unventilated space with a pile of covid positive people for over an hour.

I wonder if many people just don't bother anymore with testing so they're sending in tests that haven't actually been done to get a negative? Or maybe just passing it lightly around the mouth to get some saliva?

@JessyCarr

According to the Guardian live thread (and linked tweets), all 600-odd pax from the 2 flights were held together in an unventilated space while testing and processing took place, with no mask requirement and very few wearing masks. The 61 who then tested positive will be isolated in hotels, but the rest (having tested negative) are expected to isolate at home.

What could possibly go wrong?

Oh, and by “isolate at home” they mean “get a connecting flight to your final destination, make your way home and then isolate”.

TheShoeLady Your DH experience helps to explain why there were so many positives. Are there any checks in place to check if he's tested?

You don't have to test before entering the UK any more (except from a tiny number of red list countries). You have to book a day 2 test but I have a friend who travels regularly and he never bothers actually doing the tests and no-one has ever chased him.

Apparently he did have to show “intention to book a test” or some bullshit,

No apparently about it, since I suspect you mean this, err, “bullshit”:

“ Before you travel to England – fully vaccinated…..book and pay for a COVID-19 test – to be taken before the end of day 2 in England”

Standard procedures that applied until the rules changed for some arrivals yesterday..

www.gov.uk/guidance/travel-to-england-from-another-country-during-coronavirus-covid-19

There's a BA crew in a covid detention centre in Hong Kong for 21 days because one of the pilots tested negative before take off but tested positive on landing.

@StCharlotte

There's a BA crew in a covid detention centre in Hong Kong for 21 days because one of the pilots tested negative before take off but tested positive on landing.

Yikes….that really won’t be any fun at all..

No reason to assume British flights any different, but obv we don't actually know as they all just went home.

I have to say I was shocked by the amount of positive cases.

@Tryingtryingandtrying

No reason to assume British flights any different, but obv we don't actually know as they all just went home.

You wouldn’t know at the airport but you would know when the day two test results were processed…..

So this new variant is so dangerous all these people didn't even know they had it? I assume none of them appeared to be terribly ill?

I'm not a conspiracy theorist of anti vaxxer but it doesn't seem to make much sense anymore.