International travel experiences under Covid

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#2930202 16-Jun-2022 09:11

nztim:
Beccara:

I thought the NZ one gave your a QR once you submit your test results? Would be interesting to see the wording.

NZ QR code comes automatically (90% of the time)

Yeah, that was nice, got an automated response within a few minutes of submitting all the info. Not sure if they're OCR'ing the test results or just looking at the info you type in alongside the upload.

freitasm

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#2930273 16-Jun-2022 10:17

Press release:

Travellers to New Zealand will no longer need a COVID-19 pre-departure test from 11.59pm Monday 20 June, COVID-19 Response Minister Dr Ayesha Verrall announced today.

“We’ve taken a careful and staged approach to reopening our borders to ensure we aren’t overwhelmed with an influx of COVID-19 cases. Our strategy has worked and as a result it’s safe to lift pre-departure test requirements much sooner than planned,” Ayesha Verrall said.

“We had intended to remove the requirement for travellers to have a pre-departure test by 31 July. But with cases continuing to decline despite over 387,000 arrivals since borders reopened there is evidence this measure can now be lifted.

“Around 90 percent of international arrivals undertake their required testing once they are in the country, with only a 2-3 percent positivity rate. So we don’t anticipate a significant increase in border cases once the requirement is lifted.

“In addition I’m advised the challenges pre-departure tests pose to visitors are now no longer outweighed by the public health benefits.

“Factors such as the availability of and cost of getting a test are increasingly becoming a barrier for people intending to travel here, especially as other countries wind back testing availability or the requirement for a test on entry themselves.

“While the pre-departure test requirements are being removed, we are keeping in place a set of border surveillance measures for detecting any possible new variants of COVID-19.

“In order to understand what new strains of COVID are arriving at the border travellers will still be required to self-test on Day 0/1 and again on Day 5/6. If the result of either test is positive, they must then get a PCR test.

“The end of pre-departure testing is just one of a number of changes that are being made to the COVID-19 Public Health Response (Air Border) Order to ensure our public health measures remain proportionate to the risk COVID-19 presents to the community.

“Also from Monday evening, passengers transiting through New Zealand will no longer need to be vaccinated, nor be required to complete a New Zealand Traveller Declaration.

“Travellers with COVID-19 like symptoms (e.g. Hayfever) will also be able to choose between showing a negative COVID test, or a certificate from a health professional ― stating that they are unlikely to have COVID-19 ― before travelling.

“Another change will see the maximum penalty for breaching the Air Border Order’s vaccination requirement reduced from $4,000, to $1,000.

“These changes represent important progress in our ongoing management of COVID-19 and our reconnecting strategy,” Ayesha Verrall said.

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openmedia

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#2953510 11-Aug-2022 14:17

So I've just got back from a UK trip and thought I'd share some observations.

First off travelling long haul right now is not for the faint of heart. Coping with a mask on a 12 hour flight really isn't a lot of fun. We were flying via Singapore and Munich into Manchester with Singapore Airlines and Lufthansa.

Mask compliance en-route

Auckland airport was generally good in both directions
Air NZ lounge almost no one was wearing a mask
Singapore Airlines strongly enforces masking in flight, but there was a lot of home-made / cloth masks that don't meet FFP2
Changi Airport had terrific compliance
Lufthansa have strong mask rules and there were regular reminders via announcements and on the inflight system, but again despite requiring FFP2 / medical there were a lot of home-made masks.
Munich airport was excellent en-route to the UK, but on the return trip a lot of people weren't bothering.
Also we didn't have a security check in transit in Munich, unlike our previous trip before COVID. I have to admit this did speed things up a lot in the terminal.
The moment we left the plane at Manchester Airport pretty much all the masks came off.
Overall in the UK masking was probably 1 in 500 or less, except at hospitals.
We called in the Jewel Changi on the way home as we had a long layover and again there was excellent mask compliance.
Masking was recommended in the Lufthansa Lounge in Munich and the SIA lounge in Changi, but less than 20% of people were wearing them.
It was such a relief when we finally exited Auckland Airport, take our masks off, and grab a great cup of coffee.

Overall the biggest issue on planes is the food service. Everyone takes their masks off at the same time to eat/drink etc. They either need to change the mask rules or stagger the service.

The staff on all the flights were generally good and would gently remind passengers were needed.

COVID in the UK

Well it couldn't be much more different than here. I spoke with people who were required to work whilst positive, and without masks. There are recommendations to isolate for 5 days but almost no one follows them. In generally most people I spoke with just pretend it doesn't exist any more despite the ongoing daily death rate. Saying this things were often subdued with hospitality still struggling in a lot of areas.

My wife and I hadn't had COVID before we left, and she caught it about 10 days into our trip. 4-5 days later my Mum also caught it for the first time. Despite being in a small UK house with limited (open a tiny window) ventilation, my father and myself continued to test negative. In my wife's case it was well over 10 days before she returned a negative test, but my mum tested negative within 7 days.

Several of the extended family have had COVID at-least twice and most reported that it was worse second time around, but none of them would even consider wearing a mask again. I've also got relatives with Long COVID who are still trying to get back to full health 18-24 months after their first infection, and that was incredibly hard to see.

Travel Declarations

As we wanted to visit the Jewel we needed to complete the SG Arrival card. One good thing is you can submit one for a group of travellers, but otherwise it was a lot more time consuming than the NZ Travel Declaration and can only be competed 3 days before arrival. Don't try and compete this on a tablet or phone, it was hard enough on a laptop. On entry we needed our NZ International Vaccine certificates and the completed form, plus the immigration staff prefer printed versions. This was thoroughly checked and verified.

The NZ Traveller Declaration is also a bit of a pain to complete, and a lot of information could be auto completed from other Govt records for NZ citizens. This wasn't verified at any point on our return by any of the airlines. I was also surprised that we still had to complete the traditional paper based customs form in addition to the information we'd already provided.

Would I do it again?

Yes, but because of family reasons and not for pleasure/vacation.

Thoughts

I'd prefer to see mandatory COVID pre-checks before all flights and the mask requirements en-route dropped.

Secondly COVID is real and affects everyone in different ways. It appears to find a weakness and exploit it. If you have asthma it will get worse, if you have arthritis the pain will increase, etc. All my family have reported than an existing ongoing issue has been considerably worse since infection.

Third - We've been really really lucky here as we've generally had a lot more freedom and a considerably lower fatality count than elsewhere. Literally everyone who heard we were from NZ commented on how well we'd deal with the pandemic compared with the UK or their home country.

What next for NZ

We've already heard we'll stay at Orange until September, which helps us ride out Winter. Beyond that I'm guessing the mask rules will start to drop off like elsewhere. It really is going to be odd having to wear one whilst out shopping after 4 weeks in the UK.

Generally known online as OpenMedia, now working for Red Hat APAC as a Technology Evangelist and Portfolio Architect. Still playing with MythTV and digital media on the side.

johno1234

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#2953521 11-Aug-2022 14:43

Interesting summary, thanks.

For myself, I wouldn't ever bother with a mask. Having had COVID, I would personally rather have COVID once a year and no masks than wear a mask all the time and still have a chance of catching COVID. I am only wearing a mask for the benefit of other people, for example when visiting my mother's rest home. However it is a bit of an imaginary benefit if I don't currently have COVID and am required to be tested and asymptomatic when I visit. If I had COVID, I would not be in a rest home, on a plane, or even outside my house. Same goes for the flu.

As to the Traveler's Declaration... what is the point of it? The web page does not explain why it is required or what is done with it. I cannot see any practical application of the information gathered. Imported cases are a pretty small percentage of our daily cases - 200 of 5000 today. Why do they care how many doses I have had, and on what date and of which vaccine? This is private medical information that the MOH already have, same for the 5000+ cases per day, and nobody else needs to ask for it again. What business is it of MBIE to demand my personal medical details? Why do they need this contact tracing information when we no longer contact trace? It seems to be a pointless data fishing exercise by a government department, simply because they can. The government was found to have acted unlawfully by preventing citizens from returning to NZ. This seems pretty similar if you cannot get on the plane without your QR code.

OTOH it seems strange that most countries no longer a pre-departure test, yet do require vaccination certs. I personally know one person who flew back from LAX to AKL in the full knowledge that she had COVID. There is no requirement to declare this and nobody asked anyway. So you or I can get on a plane and be sat next to a COVID spreader but not a healthy antivaxxer. I would rather get the latter, please, as long as I remember my noise cancelling Sonys.

wellygary

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#2953526 11-Aug-2022 15:10

Yip, I can't really see the Declaration lasting much longer, ( esp as non vaxxed NZ citizens can return No questions asked)

They will drop it for NZers first ( Maybe September) and I would expect it to be gone by the lead up to the peak summer season for tourists..

panther2

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#2953551 11-Aug-2022 16:10

Spent the month of July around UK, Germany & Greece

Found mask wearing was only on the flights out of nz or out of the EU. Mask wearing on European flights was hit and miss and probably the minority.

The predepature traveller qr new zelanders have to complete to re-enter this country is a waste of time. No one scanned it. They only cared for the Vax record more so that the passport qr. On re-entry to nz no one checked the traveller qr.

Also safe travel record should be linked to the traveller info.

Was nice though to have normality and almost a pre covid life for a month. We took masks but rarely used them. Only on public transport in Germany where it's mandated and on a ferry

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Kyanar

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#2953577 11-Aug-2022 17:48

Visited NZ from Australia last weekend. What an absolute shambles.

First, people on plane coughing and choking the whole trip (wearing masks, but we're all well aware surgical masks have minimal benefit in preventing newer COVID-19 variant infections) - well done on enforcing the "if sick, deny boarding" that Air NZ threatens. And the flight was 50 minutes late.

Second, on arrival at Auckland pretty much every one of the 260+ passengers on a packed A321neo get denied entry by SmartGate and have to wander over to the single open immigration counter where we queue for 45 minutes to get the third degree (why are you visiting, when are you leaving - as a citizen I'm curious what the point of this is, since I cannot legally be denied entry), then another 45 minutes in the biosecurity queue so that we could get our free pack of taxpayer funded RATs and traveller declaration verified.

All in all, not an experience I'd voluntarily repeat anytime soon.

Contrast with Australia, where clearing passport control and biosecurity took four minutes (and amazingly, you no longer have to remove laptops and tablets from your bags for screening!)

panther2

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#2953578 11-Aug-2022 17:52

Had people coughing all out flights too.. I'd say a lot of people woth covid are just going about their daily life

neb

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#2953579 11-Aug-2022 17:56

johno1234:
I personally know one person who flew back from LAX to AKL in the full knowledge that she had COVID. There is no requirement to declare this and nobody asked anyway.

Could that be because she was flying from the #1 Covid fail state? If she'd gone through Singapore I doubt that would have worked...

Handle9

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#2953586 11-Aug-2022 18:23

Kyanar:

Visited NZ from Australia last weekend. What an absolute shambles.

First, people on plane coughing and choking the whole trip (wearing masks, but we're all well aware surgical masks have minimal benefit in preventing newer COVID-19 variant infections) - well done on enforcing the "if sick, deny boarding" that Air NZ threatens. And the flight was 50 minutes late.

Second, on arrival at Auckland pretty much every one of the 260+ passengers on a packed A321neo get denied entry by SmartGate and have to wander over to the single open immigration counter where we queue for 45 minutes to get the third degree (why are you visiting, when are you leaving - as a citizen I'm curious what the point of this is, since I cannot legally be denied entry), then another 45 minutes in the biosecurity queue so that we could get our free pack of taxpayer funded RATs and traveller declaration verified.

All in all, not an experience I'd voluntarily repeat anytime soon.

Contrast with Australia, where clearing passport control and biosecurity took four minutes (and amazingly, you no longer have to remove laptops and tablets from your bags for screening!)

Ugh. I'm not looking forward to this at Christmas time.

I just got back to the UAE on Tuesday night. I flew into Sharjah and from touchdown to home it was 65 minutes, with a 35 minute taxi ride. Now there isn't pre departure tests or tests on arrival travel is pretty ok.

openmedia

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#2953634 11-Aug-2022 21:52

Kyanar:

Second, on arrival at Auckland pretty much every one of the 260+ passengers on a packed A321neo get denied entry by SmartGate and have to wander over to the single open immigration counter where we queue for 45 minutes to get the third degree (why are you visiting, when are you leaving - as a citizen I'm curious what the point of this is, since I cannot legally be denied entry), then another 45 minutes in the biosecurity queue so that we could get our free pack of taxpayer funded RATs and traveller declaration verified.

We used Smart Gate coming in from Singapore - absolutely no issues.

Generally known online as OpenMedia, now working for Red Hat APAC as a Technology Evangelist and Portfolio Architect. Still playing with MythTV and digital media on the side.

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johno1234

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#2953833 12-Aug-2022 13:55

I think the calls to drop the Traveler's Declaration are growing:

https://www.stuff.co.nz/travel/travel-troubles/300653761/is-it-time-to-ditch-the-new-zealand-traveller-declaration

wellygary

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#2953837 12-Aug-2022 14:13

johno1234:

I think the calls to drop the Traveler's Declaration are growing:

https://www.stuff.co.nz/travel/travel-troubles/300653761/is-it-time-to-ditch-the-new-zealand-traveller-declaration

In the last 2 1/2 weeks Boarder cases have fallen by 1/2... now around 170/day, its quite apparent that this "winter spike" has been nowhere near as bad as modelled, ( probably because the actual number of people who have had COVID are much much higher than they think)

If the trend continues until the September review I think the declaration for NZers will get dumped,

SheriffNZ

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#2953843 12-Aug-2022 14:21

wellygary:

johno1234:

I think the calls to drop the Traveler's Declaration are growing:

https://www.stuff.co.nz/travel/travel-troubles/300653761/is-it-time-to-ditch-the-new-zealand-traveller-declaration

In the last 2 1/2 weeks Boarder cases have fallen by 1/2... now around 170/day, its quite apparent that this "winter spike" has been nowhere near as bad as modelled, ( probably because the actual number of people who have had COVID are much much higher than they think)

If the trend continues until the September review I think the declaration for NZers will get dumped,

While I think you're correct in that the winter spike isn't as bad as modeled, I also think an element of this is people not reporting positive tests.

johno1234

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#2953858 12-Aug-2022 14:30

SheriffNZ:

wellygary:

...

In the last 2 1/2 weeks Boarder cases have fallen by 1/2... now around 170/day, its quite apparent that this "winter spike" has been nowhere near as bad as modelled, ( probably because the actual number of people who have had COVID are much much higher than they think)

If the trend continues until the September review I think the declaration for NZers will get dumped,

While I think you're correct in that the winter spike isn't as bad as modeled, I also think an element of this is people not reporting positive tests.

Waste water detection is inline with reported cases. Hopitalisation is a lagging indication but that's also trending down consistently for 3 weeks:

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/covid-19-omicron-outbreak-4126-cases-today-13-virus-related-deaths-280000-plus-kiwis-infected-with-ba45-variants/UT4YUBWGF37GWS4SGDRK6VD54Q/

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