•US CDC shortens recommended COVID-19 isolation, quarantine time
More than 2,800 flights were cancelled yesterday as COVID-19 cases surged across the globe.
This was just as the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention yesterday shortened the recommended times that people should isolate when they’ve tested positive for COVID-19 from 10 days to five days if they don’t have symptoms – and if they wear a mask around others for at least five more days.
However, of the more than 2,800 cancelled flights, around 1,000 were within, into or out of the United States, according to FlightAware. Almost 11,000 flights are delayed.
“The nationwide spike in Omicron cases this week has had a direct impact on our flight crews and the people who run our operation,” a United memo obtained by CNN disclosed.
According to the CNN, globally, airlines cancelled more than 6,000 flights on Christmas Eve, Christmas and the day after Christmas. In the United States, more than 1,200 flights were cancelled and more than 5,000 were delayed on Sunday alone as staff and crew call out sick.
The cancellations come at the busiest time of year for air travel. The US Transportation Security Administration said it screened millions of people each day over the holiday weekend, peaking at 2.19 million travelers on Thursday, December 23. On Wednesday, more people passed through TSA checkpoints than on the same day in 2019.
Alaska Airlines, which cancelled 133 flights of 19 per cent of its operations Monday, attributed its cancellations and delays on winter weather in the Pacific Northwest. The airline said it cancelled almost 250 mainline flights scheduled to arrive or depart from Seattle Sunday. As of Monday afternoon, Seattle-Tacoma International Airport has the most delays and cancellations in the world, according to FlightAware.
“We’re working as quickly as possible to get all our affected guests rebooked on other flights, while operating safely,” Alaska Airlines said in a statement. “Reservations is experiencing extremely long hold times of up to 11 hours.”
Saturday air travel was a bit slower because of the flight cancellations: More than 1.53 million people passed through security checkpoints Saturday.
United Airlines (UAL) said last week it had to cancel hundreds of flights because it lacked enough crew members to safely fly all of its scheduled routes.
Delta (DAL) said it was working to get all stranded travelers home as quickly as possible.
“We apologise to our customers for the delay in their holiday travel plans,” Delta said in a statement. “Delta people are working hard to get them to where they need to be as quickly and as safely as possible on the next available flight.”
European airlines also experienced a small number of cancellations amid record-breaking numbers of COVID-19 cases in several European nations.
A British Airways spokesperson told CNN yesterday that the airline had cancelled, “a number of flights due to operational constraints,” and were instead using larger aircrafts, where possible, to get customers to their destinations. According to tracking website FlightAware, 46 flights from British Airways were cancelled yesterday.
Virgin Atlantic told CNN flying continues “as scheduled,” noting the exception of one of their London Heathrow — New York JFK rotations which saw cancellations on December 21.
A Virgin Atlantic spokesperson told CNN: “We continue to take pre-emptive measures to uphold operational and staffing resilience, always putting the health and safety of our customers and people first.”
Also, German airline, Lufthansa, said it would cancel 10 per cent of its winter flight schedule as the pandemic continues to hit the aviation industry.
In an interview with Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung last week, Lufthansa CEO Carsten Spohr said that due to “a sharp drop in bookings” the airline will have to cancel 33,000 flights from mid-January to February 2022 or 10% of the group’s winter flight schedule.
Spohr’s comments were confirmed to CNN by the Lufthansa press office.
Meanwhile, the CDC also shortened the recommended time for people to quarantine if they are exposed to the virus to a similar five days if they are vaccinated and often to no time if they are boosted.
“Given what we currently know about COVID-19 and the Omicron variant, CDC is shortening the recommended time for isolation from 10 days for people with COVID-19 to 5 days, if asymptomatic, followed by 5 days of wearing a mask when around others,” CNN quoted a CDC statement to have disclosed.
“The change is motivated by science demonstrating that the majority of SARS-CoV-2 transmission occurs early in the course of illness, generally in the 1-2 days prior to onset of symptoms and the 2-3 days after. Therefore, people who test positive should isolate for five days and, if asymptomatic at that time, they may leave isolation if they can continue to mask for 5 days to minimise the risk of infecting others,” it added.
Quarantine refers to the time people stay away from others if they are exposed to a disease but not yet testing positive or showing symptoms.
CDC changed those recommendations, too.
“For people who are unvaccinated or are more than six months out from their second mRNA dose (or more than two months after the J&J vaccine) and not yet boosted, CDC now recommends quarantine for five days followed by strict mask use for an additional five days,” it added.
“Alternatively, if a 5-day quarantine is not feasible, it is imperative that an exposed person wear a well-fitting mask at all times when around others for 10 days after exposure. Individuals who have received their booster shot do not need to quarantine following an exposure, but should wear a mask for 10 days after the exposure. For all those exposed, best practice would also include a test for SARS-CoV-2 at day 5 after exposure. If symptoms occur, individuals should immediately quarantine until a negative test confirms symptoms are not attributable to COVID-19.”
