florens

Just to follow up on this. I have now rebooked to June 2021 (!) and paid 40 CHF fare difference as I found availability in Z (outbound) and O (inbound), so the fare difference was not very high.

ffay005

After 24 Kosovans tested positive arriving from SKP to TKU on a W6 flight on Saturday, our government has now threatened to impose a real quarantine on pax arriving from "risk" countries. What this means in practice, nobody knows.

What is a "risk" country? Any place with over 8 / 100.000 / 14 days?

It's very difficult for me to belive they would actually employ an army of doctors at the airports and order a real quarantine, including full salary as mandated by law, to everyone arriving from any of the countries the government hasn't separately declared "safe". They'd run out of doctors and money. And it's most likely illegal, too, as "A was in country X" is hardly a good enough reason to impose quarantine.

But if they really go forward with this, it will very likely mean more cancellations.

Jainzar

I expect that they will change the law. No need to run out of money.

florens

Finland will have to raise that 8/100k threshold. It‘s the lowest in Europe (except Ireland) and with cases rising everywhere, soon Finland will be shut for everyone again. Unless that is what Finland wants of course.

For comparison:

Norway: 20/100k
Denmark: 30/100k, 7 days
Switzerland: 60/100k
Baltics: 16/100k
Germany: 50/100k, 7 days

My 5 cents.

Courmisch

In May, the public opinion in Europe was so sorry for our youth who lost their schools and/or jobs because of confinement, and it was urgent to get as close back to normal societal operations as possible. We all knew that the number of infections would pick up again. The idea was more or less explicitly that high-risk people would have to stay somewhat isolated, while low-risk people would be allowed to live normally and potentially catch the disease.

But public opinion is like a gold fish. It sees that number actually get worse, and wants governments to do something about it. And it's much to tighten the screws on international travelers than on partying youth or on elderly meeting their family.

Of course, the whole plan from May/June is questionable. I guess that there's about a quarter of the population in Finland who's at high-risk, and maybe a third if you also count those living in the same household. How do you isolate so many people? and keep a mostly normal society at the same time?


I'm not exactly clear what they can practically do though. Unless they put the police to controlling quarantined people, it remains voluntary, no matter how hard the recommendation or requirement is stated.

Courmisch

I doubt that that would be legal in the case that somebody went to a green-listed country, that they became red-listed before they return.

And then making a distinction between who was morally responsible for their own quarantine, who was not... seems a bit sketchy as well, from a legal standpoint. But IANAL.

FFlash

Irresponsible those who fly to SKP these days. My 1 cent.

And stupid government to watch 8/100 factor which is low

kauppias

seems society is in a very I I I mode now, while the govt is in a what should we do mode? we have to do something... moving slow enough to be constantly late 😄🤷‍♀️

aapee

Well, with that threshold the Finnish capital area is a risk area.

https://www.hs.fi/kotimaa/art-2000006597834.html

mpkz

SKP traffic is almost certainly mostly work-related. 8/100k is low given that Uusimaa now exceeds it and it should be proportional to domestic infections, but I would rather have borders closed than society closed. And I say this as a Finn living abroad who travels home regularly.

ffay005

Yes. And at least for now, the statements are partly illegal, too, like claiming that people without other options would need to book hotels for 14 days and pay for those themselves. The law explicitly states that it is the responsibility of the municipality to put up those who are quarantined.

ffay005

I flew this route last November. Only two flights, of course, one outbound and one inbound. On those flights, there were no workers. It was almost exclusively large Kosovan families travelling home (Pristina is about 60 km from Skopje by road) and surprisingly many elderly Kosovans who didn't speak any languages known to the staff at TKU.

ffay005

And now the minister of justice says in Helsingin Sanomat that she knows nothing about any quarantines and that there has been no discussion about this in the government. Perhaps once again it's more private thinking by a single minister than anything that is or will become a government-imposed restriction.

https://www.hs.fi/politiikka/art-200...5ce7fd07c565f2

WilcoRoger

I’m happy she’s in the government - repeatedly she’s been toning down the “girls’” more outlandish ideas. Good to have an adult and a lawyer at that in the bunch.

FWIIW I changed my MUC/VIE open jaw to MUC r/t - with DE still being in the nice group. But who knows how it will be in 3 weeks... but I’ll miss my Schnitzel & Sacher binging

florens

Germany has incidence of 13.3/100k so is overdue to be put on the naughty list. (Source. ECDC)