
Russia has halted all flights into and out of the country - bookofjoe
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-russia-flights/russia-to-halt-all-flights-at-midnight-on-friday-including-for-repatriation-idUSKBN21L1ZM
======
LatteLazy
Lots of countries have.

I was on one of the last flights to transit through Taiwan. Here in the UK,
the government have been talking about a program to get brits back from
Australia because many of the places you have to stop and refuel are closed
even to transiting passengers.

[https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/03/coronavirus-travel-
re...](https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/03/coronavirus-travel-restrictions-
border-shutdowns-country-200318091505922.html)

[https://www.gov.uk/foreign-travel-advice/australia/return-
to...](https://www.gov.uk/foreign-travel-advice/australia/return-to-the-uk)

~~~
gambiting
Weirdly enough, I had a quick look at Heathrow arrivals and departures, and
there's still loads of flights leaving every 10 minutes, to all kinds of
destinations. Multiple flights per day to Rome - I guess if you absolutely,
positively have to be in Italy right now! In comparison, my local airport in
North of England had a single flight the entire day.

~~~
shartshooter
My understanding is that if airlines stop running flights they may lose their
access to a given airport or terminal. So they run flights even if they aren't
full or in major demand.

~~~
lower
> My understanding is that if airlines stop running flights they may lose
> their access to a given airport or terminal.

This used to be the case, but the relevant rule has now been suspended.

[https://www.euractiv.com/section/aviation/news/eu-council-
jo...](https://www.euractiv.com/section/aviation/news/eu-council-joins-fight-
to-bust-coronavirus-ghost-flights/)

~~~
JadeNB
> This used to be the case, but the relevant rule has now been suspended.

Your sibling commenter gambiting
([https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22782078](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22782078))
points out that, as your link shows, the suspension is an EU, not a UK,
decision.

~~~
lower
The UK is still bound to the EU rules until the end of the year.

Here is an article stating this explicitly in connection to the "ghost flight"
rules: [https://www.theguardian.com/business/2020/mar/10/eu-
airlines...](https://www.theguardian.com/business/2020/mar/10/eu-airlines-
ghost-flights-coronavirus-fightback-airport-landing-rules-empty-planes)

------
lolc
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 nationalistic rally of blaming
others for the spread.

~~~
refurb
Take a look at Vietnam and Singapore. Both clamped down hard back in January.
They were keeping their numbers quite low (<100), especially impressive
considering Vietnam is 100M people.

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.

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

~~~
kevin_thibedeau
Italy has a lot of Chinese-staffed sweatshops. All it would take is one
infectee to start their new job in December or January to start the
steamroller going.

------
woodandsteel
Wikipedia has an article on the coronavirus epidemic in Russia, including the
government's response. Of course, the data may not be reliable.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2020_coronavirus_pandemic_in_R...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2020_coronavirus_pandemic_in_Russia)

------
freefal
I thought this happened a week ago when they suspended the Candidates chess
tournament.

~~~
starik36
It was announced during the tournament with a grace period, which has now
expired. I feel bad for Rajubov who actually predicted this happening and they
kicked him out of the tournament.

------
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?

~~~
kds3
Maybe because they started testing early? Their first cases were in January
and they screened everyone in airports since then [0], they performed 639606
tests with 4731 positives. [1][2]

[0] [https://www.reuters.com/article/china-health-pneumonia-
russi...](https://www.reuters.com/article/china-health-pneumonia-
russia/update-1-russia-steps-up-airport-screening-of-chinese-travellers-over-
coronavirus-fears-idUSL8N29Q3SJ)

[1]
[https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/#countries](https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/#countries)

[2]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COVID-19_testing](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COVID-19_testing)

~~~
amai
Let's read some real news:

\- [https://meduza.io/en/news/2020/04/02/russian-public-
health-a...](https://meduza.io/en/news/2020/04/02/russian-public-health-
authority-can-t-explain-why-it-s-published-the-same-exact-coronavirus-test-
count-for-three-days-straight)

\- [https://meduza.io/en/feature/2020/03/18/at-the-peak-we-
could...](https://meduza.io/en/feature/2020/03/18/at-the-peak-we-could-be-
talking-about-millions-of-tests)

\- [https://meduza.io/en/feature/2020/04/03/russian-doctors-
unio...](https://meduza.io/en/feature/2020/04/03/russian-doctors-union-leader-
arrested-twice-and-beaten-by-police-for-delivering-masks-to-medical-staff-
fighting-covid-19)

~~~
ineedasername
That makes it sound about as sealed shut on speaking out as the Chinese were
in the early days, only without the mass quarantines that they wouldn't be
able to hide as easily. Either way it doesn't paint a good picture.

------
batter
This doesn't align with their propaganda that claims coronavirus has no more
harm than regular flu. People are told there is no coronavirus in Russia, just
couple minor cases.

~~~
anticodon
This is absolutely false. Just one more fake news about Russia.

------
mirimir
Huh. I live in a rural area. Tourism (hunting, fishing, etc) is the main
driver for visitors. Now many locals _do not_ want visitors, notwithstanding
the money that they spend.

------
wdr1
The WHO generally considers against such travel restrictions.

[https://www.who.int/news-room/articles-detail/updated-who-
re...](https://www.who.int/news-room/articles-detail/updated-who-
recommendations-for-international-traffic-in-relation-to-covid-19-outbreak)

~~~
asexdrtfgyu
WHO's bad advice is responsible for tens of thousands of deaths. I watched
their conferences in January. Simultaneously heaping praise on China for their
effective quarantines while demanding other countries not cut off flights from
China because there was little risk. If every country ignored them and stopped
travel, or said every person entering the country has to spend X days in
quarantine, this could have been contained. And that's only one part of WHO's
failure.

------
heurifk
I suspect this is to deter Russians from coming home for the Orthodox Easter
which is way more important than in the West.

~~~
krasin
I am a Russian living abroad. I know literally no one coming back to Russia
for Easter. It's the first time I even heard of this idea.

Summer or New Year are the times when Russians are more likely to go to visit
their relatives and friends.

~~~
gambiting
Do you have any idea why that is? Length of travel? Cost of travel? I'm a Pole
living abroad and every year I try to go to visit my family for Easter, it
seems like a pretty normal thing to do.

~~~
krasin
Thank you for sharing that! It's amazing that this tradition exists in Poland.
Do Poles come to see family for New Year / Christmas?

Oh, and by the way: Russia has state holidays from Jan 1st till Jan 10th (+/-,
every year is slightly different), which makes it a lot easier to meet
everyone.

Easter does not have any state recognition in Russia, so everyone would be
quite busy with their regular errands, I guess.

~~~
gambiting
Yeah, we go home for Christmas too. So per year I'll usually go for Christmas
and for Easter. Maybe if the year is really good we'll try to visit at the end
of summer too.

------
arkanciscan
Putin should have kept that plane of supplies he sent to the US to prove a
point.

