Next time you land on an international flight, this is what may await you

I have landed in Hong Kong after flying from Paris CDG, via London Heathrow. I now have to wait eight hours before I get my COVID-19 test results and thus have ample time to tweet about my experience.

At CDG, the British Airways check-in staff wore masks and gloves. Masks are mandatory inside the airport. But on the plane to London, and on my next flight to HK, no BA staff wore masks, surprisingly.

The captain on my LHR > HKG flight said there were about 100 of us on the plane. That means the Boeing 777 was flying at 1/3 of its capacity. Every single passenger (except someone who apparently had special permission to connect to Brunei) will enter some sort of quarantine on arrival.

I just went through this, but there were so many steps & stations upon arrival in HK that I’ve forgotten half. I filled in a quarantine order + a health declaration, was made to download an app, received a tracking bracelet, had it registered. Someone checked if my phone worked.

A health dept official signed & stamped my quarantine declaration in duplicate. He was nice & friendly. He asked if I had someone to take care of me & if I had a thermometer. When I hesitated, he gave me one.

He showed me how to fill in my symptom + temperature tracking table, explained that I needed to fill in another form with the details of my method of transportation home. Everything was in a manila folder. He told me not to worry & wished me good health.

After receiving my bracelet and my thermometer, I went on through immigration and got my bags as normal. On the other side we were directed onto buses and young men in full protection gear helped load our bags onto the bus.

We were given bright orange lanyards to be marked as people to be tested. The testing and waiting take place in different giant halls at Asia World Expo.

After dropping off our bags in one place and getting luggage tags; we got back on the bus as were dropped off at another facility. There we stood in line to get our testing packs. A health worker gave us our tag number, our packs, and explained how to conduct the self-test.

Then we sat and watched a detailed helpful, video on how to conduct the self-test.

I thought someone would take a swab and wasn’t expecting a self-test but it was simple enough. When it came time to hock up deep throat spit, I was grateful for the thoughtful courtesy of the private booths.

My bagged specimen with my ticket for my booth number.

We were then directed towards a washroom that was for hand-washing only.

Finally, we were taken to a big hall w/ numbered & distanced individual tables with chairs. Different flights are assigned different rows. Each table comes with a trash bag and a couple information sheets.

There seems to be a conscious effort to avoid telling us how long it will take, but I overheard staff tell a father, 8 hours, after he gently pressed. Now his three kids are quietly studying, with the mom helping the youngest with his multiplication.

One well-prepared mom traveling alone with a toddler brought a small beach tent and set it up next to her table, so that her child could be more comfortable. She’s gone, so I’m hoping the staff prioritised her or gave her a better set up.

We were handed sandwiches (with a vegetarian option) and bottled water. I saw one hygienic slip-up: a passenger asked to switch her sandwich choice and the staff took her box back from her and put it back on the cart.

It’s only been about an hour and a half but a woman is already pacing around her table. I’m saving my sandwich for later as it’ll likely be the highlight of my time here.

There is an atmosphere of patient cooperation. We are all HK residents returning home, who got on our planes knowing (vaguely) what was ahead of us upon arrival, including the mandatory 2-week quarantine. After 2.5 months in Europe (mostly in France), it’s a relief to be back.

At home, my mom awaits my arrival. A few days ago, she informed our building management that I’d be coming.

They are on standby and will spray me and my luggage with disinfectant in the lobby. Then they will disinfect the elevator and the lobby behind me.

It’s nice to be home where I am not seen an over-the-top germaphobe. Here people work collectively to get local transmission to ZERO.

In France I felt like ppl saw the virus as an abstract lottery, believing they just need to follow govt guidelines best they can & hope for the best.

(Compiled from the Twitter thread of Laurel Chor, an award winning journalist, photographer and author based in Hong Kong)