Storytime! Okay so after the most amazing holiday minus some hiccups we were getting on the plane to go back home. 10 hours into the flight there’s an announcement, it was as if we were in a movie. “If there are any doctors aboard please notify a member of the crew, thank you”. This woke nearly everyone, a guy 2 rows ahead of me rose and walked to the other side of the plane. 10 rows down on that side someone was laying on the floor, they were giving them oxygen and an hour or two later they even gave them IV fluids. My friends and I thought we would have to make an emergency stop. 4 hours later the person was gone but all the crew members started flooding to the back of the plane, again we thought maybe it’s about an emergency landing. Some moments after everything appeared normal and breakfast was served. We had heard nothing so we assumed the person was okay.
It was finally time to land it had been a long 16-hour flight. Once we landed the cabin crew said there welcome messages including the please stay seated until the captain has turned the seat belt sign off. The plane finally came to a stop then the captain jumped on the mic. “Ladies and gentleman someone on the plane has been feeling unwell and we are going into quarantine until the marshals come onto the plane”. A lot of people were pissed off including the pregnant lady in front of me who had yelled at me mid-flight. We didn’t know how long we would be in quarantine for. Would we have to be isolated for 14 days now? 30 minutes had passed two police officers got on the plane and the doctors were called to get off. Then the captain turned the seat belt sign off and we were allowed to leave.
We got into the terminal and lined up to do the e-passport check. While lining up we saw 5 people walk towards the plane we had just gotten off in hazmat suits. That scared us a little, thinking what the hell is happening, did this person have coronavirus. We laughed about it then kept going on with customs and getting our bags to go home.
Once we were home we didn’t really think about it, minus some small coronavirus jokes. 4 days later my friend messages us saying she heard of someone that got sick and he flew home from Los Angeles the same day as us. Unsure if he was on the same flight we waited for more information from here. We get another message from here “ahhh f*ck, he was on our flight” “apparently a woman in row 69 [had it]”. We checked on Qantas website and it was confirmed, someone in row 69 had coronavirus on our flight. We sat in row 73, only 4 away. We were so shocked to find this out but we also thought it was extremely funny. I then thought about how I had kissed someone on Sunday, thought I better let them know what was happening. Extremely embarrassed I typed, “Hey, so”. They were not too happy, although I know it wasn’t my fault I still felt extremely bad. They said to me “if you don’t get tested I will”. I thought I better call the doctors to find out what to do.
I waited on hold for 45 minutes but finally I really nice lady answered the phone. She went through the generic questions with me, she told me that because I had been feeling fine and I hadn’t been sitting within 2 rows of the infected I was still able to live my life with no quarantine. My friend, however, had been feeling a bit sick. She called the hotline and they told her to go get tested. Wednesday morning she went to get tested and was told to self-quarantine for 14 days. It was going to take 48hours to find out the results. I thought I better tell my bosses what’s going on. They both found it funny but suggested I don’t work until my friend’s results are back. I was already going crazy from not working and they told me I wasn’t allowed to work until I knew. This was going to be fun!
I just wanted to add that I think this is ridiculous. People are bulking buying toilet paper, nappies, tissues, sanitary products, canned food, rice, pasta and so much more. I literally have two rolls of toilet paper at home and we couldn’t find any when we went to go shopping. People, please stop panic buying. This is also making me so mad that countries, schools, workplaces are going into lockdown. More people are dying from the flu, and 3 times more people have died from domestic abuse in the same time frame, how is that not something to panic about. “So far, the new coronavirus has led to more than 100,000 illnesses and more than 3,000 deaths worldwide. But that’s nothing compared with the flu, also called influenza. In the U.S. alone, the flu has caused an estimated 34 million illnesses, 350,000 hospitalizations and 20,000 deaths this season, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).” https://www.livescience.com/new-coronavirus-compare-with-flu.html Yes, I know some people are at risk, the young, elderly, and people with preexisting conditions, but the majority of the world’s population will get it and survive so why is everyone panicking?
To be continued…
For some more facts check out this Facebook page. https://www.facebook.com/pg/informationisbeautiful/photos/?tab=album&album_id=10157864012508418
