
Austria Urges Homecoming as Rest of the World Deemed Unsafe - lihaciudaniel
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-03-13/austria-urges-homecoming-as-rest-of-the-world-deemed-unsafe
======
umeshunni
Hong Kong's Cathay Pacific airline just increased capacity on some flights
from the US:

..this capacity increase is because the airline “understands that many Hong
Kong students and citizens in North America are eager to come home as soon as
possible in time for the Easter break.”

[...]

This decision comes as Hong Kong has issued a “red” travel alert for the
United States, requiring a 14 day quarantine for anyone who has been in the
United States for the past 14 days.

Given that this situation is about to get significantly worse in the US, many
from Hong Kong clearly feel more comfortable returning there, where the
situation is under much better control.

[...]

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glitchc
I believe the (Canadian) govt. wants to minimize the cost and hardship of an
emergency evacuation in case things get hairy in any particular part of the
world where response to the virus is inadequate:

Case in point: The Israel-Hezbollah conflict of 2006 and subsequent evacuation
of Lebanese Canadians. Some hard lessons learnt there.

[https://sencanada.ca/content/sen/committee/391/fore/rep/rep1...](https://sencanada.ca/content/sen/committee/391/fore/rep/rep12may07-e.pdf)
[https://toronto.citynews.ca/2006/07/19/canadians-begin-
evacu...](https://toronto.citynews.ca/2006/07/19/canadians-begin-evacuation-
from-lebanon/) [https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/lebanon-
evacua...](https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/lebanon-evacuation-
cost-85-million-report/article1103709/)

------
noizejoy
Canada also encouraging return of residents [0]

[0] [https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/canadian-travellers-
abroad-...](https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/canadian-travellers-abroad-
should-return-home-champagne-says-1.5498252)

~~~
grecy
I'm shocked the haven't closed the border to the US yet.

Surely the direct flight ban from EU->USA means tons of people are simply
flying to Canada then on to the USA.... I'd be interested to see if there has
been an uptick in travellers transiting through Canada.

~~~
gpm
I think the US ban is against people who have been in the EU recently, not
just people flying direct?

Canada is funneling international flights through a few airports, and asking
people who come from outside the country to self isolate for 14 days. It's not
completely open season for traveling here.

Closing the US Canada border entirely would be insane, there are communities
in both countries which are only connected by land to the other country. There
is literally a town split in the middle by the border. Tons of freight is
trucked through (which unlike other modes of shipping doesn't have a natural
hand-off at the border). Etc.

On the flip side, Canada has just started communicating to it's citizens
pretty strongly that they should come home right away... so closing the border
soon might be in the works.

~~~
grecy
> _Closing the US Canada border entirely would be insane_

Oh, I know. Look how many countries around the world are completely closing
their borders. I'll be shocked if all borders in the world aren't closed in
the next week (two max)

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needle0
At this point, I doubt anywhere is safe.

~~~
zozbot234
Get to a place where the virus hasn't taken hold yet, within a country that's
taking decisive action against it spreading. Then quarantine yourself for 14
days, so that you won't transmit the virus to others (in case you're infected)
and create a dangerous community-spread outbreak in the process. Plenty of
people will essentially be safe from this, the whole problem is the sheer
amount of people who won't.

~~~
ornornor
I don’t think the country you’re describing exists.

