Cathay Pacific Asia Miles - All passengers passing through HKIA will be checked...

I received this email from CX this morning.

The highlight is that "Cathay Pacific Airways has given its full support to moves by the Hong Kong Government to introduce precautionary measures for passengers arriving, departing and transiting at Hong Kong International Airport (HKIA)."

Honestly I think CX would prefer not to have given support because this inconvenience will drive more passengers away even if they are flying in and to a non-SARS infected area with a transit only at HKIA. Now every one will be subjected to a temperature check!

HKIA Transit Passengers:
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Transit passengers must have their body temperature measured at Transfer Points in the terminal's arrivals level.
1. Passengers with body temperature below 38C will be allowed to proceed to the departures level.
2. Passengers with body temperature higher than 38C will be referred to a medical post for further examination. At the medical post the passenger's temperature will be re-checked and <a> Upon checking, if temperature confirmed to be below 38C, the passenger will be allowed to proceed to the departures level.
If he/she is confirmed to have fever, the passenger will be further asked whether he/she has SARS symptoms. If not, he/she will be allowed to proceed to the departures level. If otherwise, the passenger will be required to undergo further
examination and will be sent to a hospital designated by the Hospital Authority if he/she is suspected to have contracted
SARS.

I sure hope they do it to members of the WHO (who apparently were the first ones to pass this sickness off to the rest of the world).

I hear in NRT they have a device that measures body temperature by walking through it un-noticed.

The only problem I have is this line "If he/she is confirmed to have fever, the passenger will be further asked whether he/she has SARS symptoms". They just cannot contain the common cold which SARS really is....just another form of it. People recover, people die. So the hysteria, please end, so I can fly (gee, it rhymes).

Otherwise, I don't have a problem with the temp checks (I sure hope my temp isn't 31 degrees C, I'll get nervous about in-flight air-conditioning!)

[This message has been edited by SHADO (edited 04-26-2003).]

Temperature checks will only take at most one minute (not withstanding queuing time but I doubt that would be a problem given that HKIA is a virtual ghost town). South China Morning Post reported many passengers would be happy to have the reassurance of screening.

it's high time they put this in place. The infra red scanner is no more hassle than walking through a metal scanner. They are putting them in at the Mainland border also, yet again after the horse has bolted and spread its bugs elsewhere. Beijing just closed down internet cafes , libraries and cinemas. The first HK Health worker just died of SARS or the mutated version, Peoples Respiratory Coverup Syndrome.