I was planning to visit Japan in 3 weeks. But given the scared of H1N1 (swine flu) virus, are people being detained at airports if you originate from US or MX?
I am a Mexican National, living in Los Angeles, CA USA. No, I am not sick nor have I traveled to Mexico in the last past 6 months. I travel with Mexican Passport with pride.
Will I be detained and quarantined at Airport? Will I be sent back? Will I be denied entry to Japan? Are flights banned/canceled to and from US/MX.
What are the lated news on travel to Asia or Japan?
Thank you.
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4 Comments
Everybody will be checked now before you can enter the airport f.e. Narita or any other international airport in Japan.
They will check with a laser thermostat and look if you have fever or not, nothing serious with taking blood or so, but still it takes time. If you don’t have any illness, there should be no problem.
You will have health check at Airport. But it does not mean that you will be denied entry to Japan.
If new flu was found from you, they will isolate you at a hospital. In other cases, no problem.
Will I be sent back? Will I be denied entry to Japan? Are flights banned/canceled to and from US/MX?
Not at all!Flights are going as scheduled, only these coming from US and Mexico are carefully examined upon arrival, before disembarking.It is a long procedure, and takes up to 2 hours, but mostly because there are too many passengers, and each of them needs to be carefully examined. First they will give you a questionnaire to see if there is possibility that you have been exposed to the virus and if you are experiencing any flu-like symptoms. Then they will check your body temperature with special external cameras, and if you seem to be in good health, they will let you go. If you experience any flu or even cold like symptoms, they will check you for flu (I don’t know how they do it, but it will take some more time), and if you test positive for flu Type A, then they will take you to a hospital, where you’ll be isolated for a day to determine if you have Soviet type flu, Hong Kong type flu or the new type. Japanese hospitals, from what I have experienced, are great, everyone is polite and everything is absolutely clean, the food is great and they have cable TV and internet.
You can read about the airport checks here:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/05/04/AR2009050400688_pf.html
http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20090507a1.html
http://www.japantoday.com/category/national/view/quarantine-officials-on-full-alert-for-new-flu-as-golden-week-return-rush-starts
Bottom line: No cold Cola and ice cream before going to Japan : )
I will tell you that I cancelled my trip to NYC because of this. My son often has a higher than normal temp with nothing wrong with him.
The on plane checks are getting faster but the quarantine offices are angry because they cannot track the non-Japanese tourists as closely as they want to (most people just give a hotel phone number on the form) Still it is an extra hour on the ground before even getting off the plane. For people who came on a 13 -15 hour flight it is a little much.
My flight was going to go through Seoul airport as well so I did not want to risk getting stopped there and not being able to make it home to Japan.
I think the reality is that everything will be fine but many places are going a little extreme with the quarantine nonsense, I just wanted to avoid it all. If I were you I would reschedule, 3 weeks from now is almost the rainy season anyway.
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