The Shocking Differences Of How Countries Are Handling The COVID-19 Measurements Around The World.
My experience of the extreme differences.
Last month I took a flight to Colombia, from the U.K, via Canada.
Here’s an overview of my experience and the shocking and extreme differences.
Travelling through London, meant wearing masks and keeping your distance. Flying with AirCanada meant we had to be fully vaccinated and show a negative Covid test, however, this is only if your final destination was somewhere in Canada. As we were flying via Canada, to Bogotá, Colombia; we were exempt from testing; we just had to show a valid vaccination pass — in my mind this was crazy!
Fast forward to boarding the flight from London, England to Toronto Canada, the Covid measures were in place. Aircraft firmly letting us know over the tannoy that a mask must be worn at all times. The crew were head to toe in hazmat suits, and warning us all that on arrival we’d be subject to random screening tests.
A few hours into the flight, once the food arrives, we were only allowed to take off our masks once the flight crew had served everyone in our row; and were forced to eat our meal within a window of 15 minutes; then masks immediately had to be put back on.
Coming into land, we were informed that rules had been implemented by internal staff at the airport. The cabin crew informed us that people with connecting flights… us… had to leave the aircraft first but only 50 people at a time, during 15-minute intervals.
So we’re in Colombia, take multiple internal flights throughout our travels and we’ve still not been asked to show a negative test; anywhere; by anyone (of course, for our own peace of mind, we travelled with multiple antigen tests to ensure we were being responsible!)
We travelled from Bogotá to Barranquilla, to Cartagena to Medellin and back to Bogotá — during all of those flights, zero testing was required. The only procedure in place to protect flyers from Covid was that the left side of the aircraft had to exit the aircraft, first, before the right side could even stand up — I wasn’t too sure of the logic there, but it’s obviously worked for them so far.
The hotels and restaurants throughout Colombia were super strict in terms of the requirement for our vaccination passes, yet no testing was required…not once.
Having gone from the extreme measures of AirCanada, it was shocking to see that Colombia was almost living a pre-pandemic life, just with the occasional mask-wearing.
As for mask-wearing, we were told this was mandatory; even when walking the streets outfit, yet no one forced it; not even the police.
It was very interesting to see the different measurements in place and I do hope that in the very near future we can start to live as normal, once more.
How’s it where you are right now?
Hey — here’s some other stories you should read: