Coronavirus, know as Covid-19 had been with us now for a few months. I also thought it wouldn’t be this big. The first news we got in aviation was that there was a new kind of virus and it was not recommendable to fly into the Wuhan area. That news quickly changed.
At the beginning of March 2020, the Coronavirus already spread to Europe. Italy was the first in Europe to cope with this new virus. Honestly, I underestimated the virus as well. I did realize that this virus was spreading fast around itself but the death rate was at first not clear. Some airlines in Asia stopped flying at this time already and some borders closed for travel.
Even seeing all those companies and countries closing I was still in the understanding that it would all be OK. Until. I was back on duty and was flying within Europe. We overflew Italy and usually, it is busy over the north side of Italy (Milano area) but now it was completely quiet. Absolutely nobody there. That was the moment I realized it. Too late I must say.
After crossing Europe I also had some trouble getting back home after my duty. Borders closed and some big airlines canceled flights. I was lucky to get back home on time. If I wouldn’t have been on time that day I would have been abroad until the end of April. That would have been very bad.
I got a thermal laser on my face with every flight. And after one landing I was a bit warm myself, I was afraid to be put into quarantine. After some minutes I was back to my normal temperature and all was fine. It was until returning home (Amsterdam) I saw that the departure time table tv’s on the airport were close to empty.
My daughter and Girlfriend had some fever when I returned home. 4 days later I had a pressing feeling on my lungs and felt sick as well. In the Netherlands, they stopped doing any tests because they didn’t have enough. Me and my girlfriend decided to self-quarantine ourselves as in the Netherlands you were still allowed to do anything. Restaurants, cafes were still open to the public.
I didn’t feel well for about 8 days but got better and better, my girlfriend and daughter felt better while I was still being sick.
The self-quarantine we did was because I was in some risk area’s the days before and my girlfriend was in contact with people who went to Carnaval and some of them got sick.
Now we are doing fine and hopefully, we can do the tests soon.
Hope you are in good health. Soon I’ll write a piece about the aviation sector and COVID-19.
If you want to know more about the virus click here
