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Russia has halted all flights into and out of the country

reuters.com

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Re: Russia has halted all flights into and out of the country

#51

Post by lolc »

Jedd wrote: post #46
lolc wrote: post #24

Is it reasonable to assume, at this point, that international travel is still a relevant contributor to the spread of the virus? Apart from reducing travel overall, I don't see how the ban could have an impact once the virus is distributed. Especially since domestic flights seem to continue. Initially, yes. It could have changed things. But this action now feels way too late. Like two months late. It feels like a nat…

Yes, it's reasonable to assume it's a contributor to the spread -- but I'm not sure what you mean by 'relevant'. Significant? (un)controllable? Worth bothering with? I can't find the article now, but a week or two ago Singapore and South Korea (IIRC) were claiming most of their new cases were imports, as they'd been approaching some level of control (via tracking & testing) within their borders. Because different cou…

I meant significant. I don't think Russia is at a point that compares well with South Korea. For SK I can understand when they differentiate between domestic and international fights.

Re: Russia has halted all flights into and out of the country

#52

Post by lolc »

spindle wrote: post #42
lolc wrote: post #24

Is it reasonable to assume, at this point, that international travel is still a relevant contributor to the spread of the virus? Apart from reducing travel overall, I don't see how the ban could have an impact once the virus is distributed. Especially since domestic flights seem to continue. Initially, yes. It could have changed things. But this action now feels way too late. Like two months late. It feels like a nat…

I believe there are at least three issues: 1. My guess is that you're right, the main reason this is happening is a nationalistic wish to blame others for the spread. But also: 2. As other commentators have noticed, it's difficult to socially distance in an airport. On the plane itself, there is extremely good ventilation and what limited evidence I've seen suggests that transmission is low, but in airports that migh…

> On the plane itself, there is extremely good ventilation and what limited evidence I've seen suggests that transmission is low, but in airports that might not be the case (I'm not sure).

I doubt that airplanes are in any way safer than airports. In an airplane it's hard not to touch places other people's droplets have reached.

Re: Russia has halted all flights into and out of the country

#53

Post by lolc »

creato wrote: post #50
spindle wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I believe there are at least three issues: 1. My guess is that you're right, the main reason this is happening is a nationalistic wish to blame others for the spread. But also: 2. As other commentators have noticed, it's difficult to socially distance in an airport. On the plane itself, there is extremely good ventilation and what limited evidence I've seen suggests that transmission is low, but in airports that migh…

> 1. My guess is that you're right, the main reason this is happening is a nationalistic wish to blame others for the spread. More than half of the world's population is under lockdown within their countries, and you still think that shutting down air travel is a nationalistic wish?

Isn't it curious that they make a distinction between international and domestic travel at this point? If air travel is spreading the disease, why not shut it all down?

Re: Russia has halted all flights into and out of the country

#54

Post by Klinky »

lolc wrote: post #53
creato wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 1. My guess is that you're right, the main reason this is happening is a nationalistic wish to blame others for the spread. More than half of the world's population is under lockdown within their countries, and you still think that shutting down air travel is a nationalistic wish?

Isn't it curious that they make a distinction between international and domestic travel at this point? If air travel is spreading the disease, why not shut it all down?

Because they are making the same short-sighted and overly-optimistic decisions practically every other country has made so far?

Re: Russia has halted all flights into and out of the country

#55

Post by refurb »

lolc wrote: post #24

Is it reasonable to assume, at this point, that international travel is still a relevant contributor to the spread of the virus? Apart from reducing travel overall, I don't see how the ban could have an impact once the virus is distributed. Especially since domestic flights seem to continue. Initially, yes. It could have changed things. But this action now feels way too late. Like two months late. It feels like a nat…

Take a look at Vietnam and Singapore. Both clamped down hard back in January. They were keeping their numbers quite low (Once the virus spread to other countries and they started to shutdown, a lot of Singapore and Vietnamese nationals returned home. Contact tracing indicated that almost 100% of new cases were people returning from overseas.

Last I checked Singapore has close to 1,000 cases and Vietnam almost 300.

To answer your question, yes, stopping international travel can have a big impact on controlling the disease.

Re: Russia has halted all flights into and out of the country

#57

Post by colmvp »

refurb wrote: post #55
lolc wrote: post #24

Is it reasonable to assume, at this point, that international travel is still a relevant contributor to the spread of the virus? Apart from reducing travel overall, I don't see how the ban could have an impact once the virus is distributed. Especially since domestic flights seem to continue. Initially, yes. It could have changed things. But this action now feels way too late. Like two months late. It feels like a nat…

Take a look at Vietnam and Singapore. Both clamped down hard back in January. They were keeping their numbers quite low ( Once the virus spread to other countries and they started to shutdown, a lot of Singapore and Vietnamese nationals returned home. Contact tracing indicated that almost 100% of new cases were people returning from overseas. Last I checked Singapore has close to 1,000 cases and Vietnam almost 300. T…

As a Canadian, I find it frustrating that for weeks, the Federal government was hesitant to halt air travel, citing the WHO who stated that closing borders showed little evidence on slowing the transmission of influenza (https://postmediaedmontonjournal2.files.wordpress.com/2020/0...)

And in the end, we ended up closing our borders except well beyond the time when it could've made a major difference.

Re: Russia has halted all flights into and out of the country

#58

Post by ineedasername »

I'm not aware of information coming out of Russia that contradicts their official reporting, but I still find it extremely implausible that they have been so little impacts by the virus spread. But I'm flying blind on this speculation, I freely admit: Are typical travel patterns between Russia and the rest of Europe so minimal as to explain their decrease exposure?

Re: Russia has halted all flights into and out of the country

#59

Post by rfoo »

refurb wrote: post #55
lolc wrote: post #24

Is it reasonable to assume, at this point, that international travel is still a relevant contributor to the spread of the virus? Apart from reducing travel overall, I don't see how the ban could have an impact once the virus is distributed. Especially since domestic flights seem to continue. Initially, yes. It could have changed things. But this action now feels way too late. Like two months late. It feels like a nat…

Take a look at Vietnam and Singapore. Both clamped down hard back in January. They were keeping their numbers quite low ( Once the virus spread to other countries and they started to shutdown, a lot of Singapore and Vietnamese nationals returned home. Contact tracing indicated that almost 100% of new cases were people returning from overseas. Last I checked Singapore has close to 1,000 cases and Vietnam almost 300. T…

It may help, but Italy (also shutdown flights to/from China in January) shows that the impact is not big enough.

Re: Russia has halted all flights into and out of the country

#60

Post by dehrmann »

spindle wrote: post #43
dehrmann wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> get brits back from Australia There is/was a commercial non-stop from Perth to Heathrow, and with how many people they'd be flying, you could also use a half-filled 787.

Right, Qantas was getting people across via Perth (and also, briefly, Darwin) until recently, but now Qantas has stopped flying, and I don't think those routes are available to other airlines.

Is there a treaty limiting routes? I know the US used to allocate them domestically. I'm a little surprised BA couldn't just least a gate from someone at Perth. Or just pay Qantas for charted flights.
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