In Australia and Taiwan’s fight against Covid, crews are proving to be their Achilles’ heel

In Australia and Taiwan’s fight against Covid, crews are proving to be their Achilles’ heel

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(CNN) – Countries in the Asia-Pacific region have closed borders and imposed strict quarantine requirements, essentially isolating themselves from the world.

But in many jurisdictions, there is an important exception to these rules: flight crews.

For months, flight crews in various places – including Taiwan and Australia – managed to avoid the harsh quarantine rules imposed on other international travelers. But airline employees’ breaches of the rules in both places in December raised questions about whether exemptions for aviation workers are creating an unnecessary risk to the public.

Taiwan has now enforced its crew quarantine rules, something that two Australian states did in December.

But it is a difficult situation. Although health experts say treating flight crews differently is a gap in a difficult frontier approach, aviation officials say exemptions are necessary to keep the industry operating – and to avoid damaging crews’ mental health.

What happened in Australia and Taiwan?

When Taiwan reported its first case transmitted locally in more than 250 days on December 22, authorities quickly named a foreign pilot as the source of the infection.

Authorities said a New Zealand pilot in his 60s infected a woman in her 30s after completing the three quarantine days required for pilots, Taiwanese state media CNA reported. This pilot was fined by the Taiwanese authorities for failing to reveal his full contact history and was fired by his company.
Although the self-governing island reported its first case in January, it managed to prevent a major coronavirus outbreak – in total, Taiwan reported just over 800 cases of coronavirus and only seven deaths. This success was largely due to his strict border approach: he closed borders in March for almost all non-residents and demanded that international arrivals be quarantined at home for 14 days.
Except, that is, for the air crew. According to Taiwan’s previous rules, pilots only needed to be quarantined for three days, while flight attendants only needed to be quarantined for five days – supposedly, the difference is that the latter group has more person-to-person interaction. Beginning January 1, the crew must spend seven days in quarantine after a long-haul flight and must test negative before they can leave, the Taiwan Disease Control Center announced on December 28.

Other places – including Hong Kong, New Zealand and Australia – have also given flight crews an exemption from their otherwise strict border policies.

Australian rules differed in each state, but previously, Australian-based flight crews flying to New South Wales were allowed to quarantine at home, rather than at the state-run hotel quarantine facilities, while international crews were required to quarantine at one of about 25 hotels until the next flight, although they were not monitored by the authorities like other international travelers.

It was strict by international standards, but still much quieter than other travelers faced – two weeks in quarantine at a state-owned hotel on their own.

But a series of incidents in December raised doubts as to whether this was the right approach. A Sydney van driver who transported international flight crews tested positive in early December.
Later that month, the New South Wales Police fined 13 members of the international air crew for A $ 1,000 (US $ 760) each for going to various locations in Sydney when they were supposed to be quarantined. And just before Christmas, a Qantas crew member tested positive after flying to Darwin from Paris and then boarding a domestic flight.
New South Wales now requires international crews to be quarantined at two designated airport hotels, where they are monitored by health officials and the police. The New South Wales-based crew needs to be tested before leaving, but can still isolate at home.
“We have said all along that it is a huge risk for us, but it is a risk we take because we want Australians to come home … and we want freight to return,” said New South Wales Prime Minister Gladys Berejiklian, in December. while she tightened the rules around the crews. “It is the violation of the guidelines that is the problem, it is not the guidelines themselves, and we cannot risk that.”

Why flight crews are treated differently

Even with the strictest restrictions in Australia and Taiwan, flight crews are still treated differently from other travelers. And in many jurisdictions, many crew members still don’t need quarantine.

In New Zealand, for example, the majority of airline crew are exempt from mandatory 14-day government quarantine due to the “importance of maintaining international air routes”. In Hong Kong, air crews who have not visited a high-risk location, including the United States and the United Kingdom, can take the test on arrival and are free to go as soon as the test is negative – much more tolerant than the quarantine. three weeks in hotel cost that other international arrivals face.
Part of the reason that flight crews were given an easier trip is that they are needed to keep the economy and supply chains running. As the Hong Kong government said, “The exemption agreement was essential to maintain the necessary functioning of society and the economy and to ensure the uninterrupted supply of all daily needs to the public”.

Albert Tjoeng, a spokesman for the International Air Transport Association (IATA), which represents 290 airlines, said the crew was different from regular travelers – they are making repeated trips, they are not waiting to get out of quarantine to achieve their goal. and are well informed about the risks and requirements. “(The crew is) acutely aware of the vulnerability of their livelihoods to any failure in infection control,” said Tjoeng.

Exemptions were also a concern for the mental health of the crew. Unlike regular travelers who may be making just one trip home this year to see their family, flight crews would fly international flights frequently. This meant that they could effectively quarantine entire weeks or months.

Such is the case with a Taiwan-based China Airlines captain, who estimates he has spent about 50 days in quarantine this year. He flies between Taipei and Sydney about once a month, and each time he is quarantined for three days at each end.

The captain, who requested anonymity for not being able to speak to the media, says he has faced quarantine, but that it is a concern both for mental health and for people to be able to be with the family and take care of their children. The days he stays in quarantine are not paid.

“I don’t think the whole society, or the company, or even the CDC (Taiwanese) really cares about our mental health, they just care about public health, they really don’t care about that part of us,” he said.

Should quarantine rules be stricter?

Health experts argue that the exemptions create a potential loophole for coronavirus to infiltrate places that would otherwise have succeeded in keeping it away.

“It seems to me that the risk of the airline’s crew being infected is no less than the risk of a passenger arriving,” Burnet Institute epidemiologist Mike Toole told Australian state broadcaster ABC in December. “It is a potential gap in the system and we cannot allow that.”

Hong Kong, New Zealand, Taiwan and Australia have been relatively successful in containing their outbreaks, in part thanks to tough border policies.

But IATA has asked governments to grant flight crews that do not interact with the public an exemption from quarantine requirements to ensure that cargo supply chains can continue. In March, the association’s chief executive and chief executive said delays in global supply chains “are putting lives at risk”.

“Air cargo is a vital partner in the global fight against Covid-19,” said Alexandre de Juniac.

IATA’s Tjoeng said strict requirements “certainly make it difficult for the crew operating in these destinations”.

ICAO, a specialized United Nations agency, also called on governments to exclude cargo flight crew members from quarantine.

“There is an urgent need to ensure the sustainability of the global air cargo supply chain and to maintain the availability of essential drugs and equipment, such as ventilators, masks and other health and hygiene items that will help to reduce the spread of Covid-19” , ICAO Secretary-General Fang Liu said in March.

For the China Airlines pilot, he understands that Taiwan needed to extend the quarantine to make the public feel comfortable. But he wants the rules to be consistent.

According to the new requirements, pilots quarantined for seven days can return to work on long-haul flights if they are quarantined for three days. In the case of flight attendants, they need to be quarantined for five days, the CNA said. For the China Airlines pilot, this appears to put him at risk of infecting colleagues – or being infected, something he feared during the course of the pandemic.

“They don’t want us for the public or for society, they don’t want us to infect others. But it seems that if I infect colleagues, it’s okay, ”he said.

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