In the fight in Australia and Taiwan against Covid, flight crews prove to be their Achilles heel

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

But in many jurisdictions there is a key exception to these rules: flight crews.

For months, flight crews from several places – including Taiwan and Australia – have managed to avoid the harsh quarantine rules imposed on other international passengers. But violations by airline staff at both locations in December raised questions about whether exemptions for aviation workers pose an unnecessary risk to the public.

Taiwan has tightened its quarantine rules for flight crews, which two Australian states did in December.

But it is a difficult situation. While health experts say different treatment of flight crews is a loophole in an otherwise harsh border approach, aviation industry officials say exemptions are needed to keep the industry running – and to avoid endangering the mental health of the airline. flight crews.

What happened in Australia and Taiwan?

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

Authorities say a pilot in New Zealand in the 1960s infected a 30-year-old woman after completing the three days of quarantine required for pilots, the Taiwanese state-run CNA reported. The pilot has now been fined by the Taiwanese authorities for not disclosing his full contact history and was fired by his company.
Although the self-governing island reported its first case in January, it managed to avoid a major outbreak of coronavirus – in total, Taiwan reported just over 800 cases of coronavirus and only seven deaths. This success was largely due to its strict border approach: it closed its borders in March for almost all non-residents and called for international arrivals to be quarantined at home for 14 days.
Except, that is, for the aircrew. According to previous Taiwanese rules, pilots only needed quarantine for three days, while flight attendants needed quarantine for five – it seems that the difference is that the last group has more interactions between people. As of January 1, the crew must spend seven days in quarantine after a long-haul flight and must give negative results before being allowed to leave, the Taiwan Centers for Disease Control announced on December 28th.

Other places – including Hong Kong, New Zealand and Australia – have offered flight crews a derogation from their otherwise harsh border policies.

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

It was strictly by international standards, but still much more relaxed than what other travelers faced – two weeks in a state-run hotel quarantine at their own expense.

But a number of incidents in December have raised questions about whether this was the right approach. A van driver from Sydney who had been carrying international flight crews gave positive results in early December.
Later that month, New South Wales Police fined 13 members of the international air crew $ 1,000 ($ 760) each for going to several places in Sydney when they should have been in quarantine. And just before Christmas, a member of the Qantas crew gave positive results after flying to Darwin in Paris and then boarding a domestic flight.
The new South Wales country is now requiring international crews to be quarantined at two airport-designated hotels, where they are being monitored by health and police authorities. The crew based in New South Wales must be tested before leaving, but may still be isolated at home.
“We have always said that it is a huge risk for us, but it is a risk that we take because we want Australians to return home … and we want the goods to return,” Prime Minister Gladys Berejiklian said in December. South Wales. while tightening the rules around the crews. “The problem is violating the guidelines, not the guidelines themselves, and we can’t risk that.”

Why flight crews are treated differently

Even with tight restrictions in Australia and Taiwan, flight crews are treated differently from other passengers. And in a number of jurisdictions, many crew members still do not have to quarantine at all.

In New Zealand, for example, most aircrews are exempt from the mandatory 14-day quarantine led by the government due to the “importance of maintaining international air routes”. In Hong Kong, air crews who have not visited a high-risk site, including the US and the UK, can take tests on arrival and are free to leave once they have given negative results – much more lenient than the three-week hotel quarantine. the cost of other international arrivals.
Part of the reason flight crews have been given an easier trip is that they are needed to keep their savings in operation and supply chains. As the Hong Kong government put it: “The exemption agreement was essential for maintaining the necessary functioning of society and the economy and for ensuring an uninterrupted supply of all daily necessities to the public.”

Albert Tjoeng, a spokesman for the International Air Transport Association (IATA), which represents 290 airlines, said the crew is different from regular travelers – they make repeated trips, do not wait to get out of quarantine to achieve the purpose of their trip, and are well informed about the risks and requirements. “(The air crew is) extremely aware of the vulnerability of livelihoods to any deficiencies in infection control,” Tjoeng said.

The exemptions were also due to concerns for the mental health of the crews. Unlike regular travelers who could make a single trip home this year to see their family, flight crews would make international flights often. That meant he could spend weeks or months in quarantine.

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

The captain, who asked to remain anonymous because he is not allowed to speak to the media, says he has faced quarantine, but that it is a concern for both mental health and the fact that people can be with their family and have take care of them. children. The days he spends in quarantine are unpaid.

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

Should quarantine rules be tightened?

Health experts say the exemptions create a possible gap for the coronavirus to sneak into places that would otherwise have kept it.

“It seems to me that the risk of the airline crew becoming infected is no less than the risk of a passenger arriving,” Mike Toole, an epidemiologist at the Burnet Institute, told Australian state television ABC in December. “There is a possible gap in the system and we can’t afford that.”

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

But IATA has called on governments to offer non-interacting flight crews an exemption from quarantine requirements to ensure that supply chains can continue. In March, the association’s general manager and executive director said delays in global supply chains were “life-threatening”.

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

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

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

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

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

Under the new requirements, pilots who have been quarantined for seven days can return to work on long-haul flights if they have been quarantined for three days. In the case of flight attendants, they must be quarantined for five days, CNA reported. The China Airlines pilot seems to be in danger of infecting his colleagues – or being infected, which he feared during the pandemic.

“We don’t want to go public or in society, we don’t want to infect others. But it seems that if I infect my colleagues, it’s okay,” he said.

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