Reduced isolation in the USA: Delta welcomes
The airline Delta Air Lines hopes that the decision of the American health authorities to reduce the self-isolation of people infected with Covid-19 but asymptomatic to five days will give it more flexibility to plan the crews necessary for returning from vacation – and limit the flight cancellations that have flourished in recent days.
Having appealed last week to the CDC to reduce the duration of this isolation and limit the absences of its staff, the American company welcomed on December 27, 2021 the decision of the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC): new recommendations reduce the recommended isolation time from 10 days for people with the condition to five days, if they are asymptomatic, followed by five days of wearing a mask in the presence of other people.
These guidelines provide more flexibility for Delta to “plan crews and employees to support a busy vacation travel season, and a sustained return to travel for its customers.”
“This is a safe, scientific and more practical approach based on what we now know about the Omicron variant,” said Dr. Henry Ting, director of health for Delta, in a statement. “This new variant quickly replaced B.1.617.2 (Delta) as the dominant variant in the United States. We are learning that while Omicron is highly contagious, it also implies a shorter duration of illness and a shorter period of contagiousness compared to previous strains ”.
The SkyTeam alliance company was less affected by the flight cancellations in recent days, attributed to the pandemic but also to the weather, than its rivals in particular: this Tuesday according to Flightaware, 59 take-offs were still canceled (excluding subsidiaries regional) after 136 the day before, against for example 102 plus 108 plus for United Airlines or 139 plus 440 for SkyWest among others.