Swine Flu Prevention Measures at Baiyun Airport

I traveled from South Korea back to Guangzhou today. As there is one confirmed case of swine flu in South Korea, measures are taken to quarantine the airplane and checks on the passengers.

For the air plane, after passengers disembark, quarantine staff will board the air plane and suppose to do some checking and cleaning.

For the passengers, starting from 1 May 2009, all visitors to China have to fill up a health declaration form. However, the ridiculous part is that, passengers from 2 or 3 flights have to crowded in an enclosed, crowded area, queue up, just to submit the form to the quarantine officers on duty. The queues are long, the waiting time is long too. Many passengers are very unhappy, as this so-called prevention measure is worse than there is no measure. If really there is a passenger with swine flu, he/she would have spread the virus to almost all the passengers queuing up to submit the form.

It is necessary to implement prevention measures, but those measures should be effective to reduce the risk, not increase the risk. This is something for the authorities to improve.