Travelers stand in lines at Chicago O’Hare International Airport waiting to be screened for possible COVID-19 symptoms. Credit: Courtesy of Sydney Hill
Amid the study abroad cancellations, travel bans and suspension of in-person classes, some Ohio State students were trying to come back home.
After the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a global pandemic Wednesday, the university canceled all summer 2020 study abroad programs indefinitely. But for students already in Europe, the path home has been anything but clear.
Madison Kelly, a third-year in marketing, said she had been studying in Milan since Jan. 23 and was supposed to stay until May 31. She landed in New York City Thursday but said she barely made it out of Italy.
“We started to hear rumors that the Italian government was going to place a lockdown on the Lombardy area (which includes Milan and the surrounding towns),” Kelly said in an email. “It was Saturday night and the lockdown was supposedly going to start the following morning.”
Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte announced a lockdown of Lombardy March 8, along with 14 other provinces most impacted by the COVID-19 outbreak, according to reports by Politico.
While in lockdown, people can leave their homes for work or health reasons. Schools, universities and public venues, such as movie theaters, which are closed, and restaurants that have a 6 p.m. curfew, according to reports by Politico.
At the time of publication, there are 27,980 confirmed cases, 2,158 deaths and 2,749 recoveries in Italy, according to Johns Hopkins University — the most cases outside of China. The entire country was placed on lockdown Wednesday.
Kelly said she was able to book a flight to Amsterdam five hours before takeoff and was on one of the last flights before the lockdown was announced.
“People were running through the train stations trying to catch a train out of the lockdown area and we even met a handful of other Americans on our flight also fleeing Milan,” Kelly said.
Even after arriving in Amsterdam, Kelly’s challenges were not over. President Donald Trump announced a 30-day travel ban from Europe Wednesday. Though the ban exempts American citizens and did not go into effect until Friday, Kelly said airlines canceled outgoing flights and finding one was difficult and expensive.
Finding a flight back home on short notice was also a challenge for Sydney Hill, a fourth-year in fashion retail studies who took a spring break trip with her roommates to Iceland.
Hill said it was such a challenge that she and her roommates decided to keep their original flight home.
“We were up half the night trying to get flights out with no luck,” Hill said in an email. “We tried any United States airport, but there’s only a few airlines that fly from Reykjavík to the U.S.”
She said the change in Iceland was rapid. In the six days she and her roommates were there, Iceland shifted from having no advisory to a Level 3 travel advisory by the U.S. Department of State — meaning travel should be reconsidered because of serious risks to safety and security — because of Trump’s travel ban. Hill said the people in Iceland did not appear worried at the time, however.
“People we talked to in Iceland were much more calm about the situation,” Hill said. She said people she spoke with while traveling along the southern coast of the country were planning to implement social-distancing strategies.
Iceland’s Minister of Health Svandís Svavarsdóttir announced a four-week ban on gatherings of more than 100 people Friday, according to Iceland’s Directorate of Health website.
At the time of publication, Iceland has 220 confirmed cases of COVID-19 with no deaths and no recoveries, according to Johns Hopkins University.
Despite initially being skeptical about measures being taken in Italy and other countries, Kelly said it was devastating to witness the COVID-19 outbreak’s effects in Italy.
“Milan is a bustling city that has turned very desolate in such a short amount of time,” Kelly said. “All restaurants and most stores are closed, streets are empty and almost all events are cancelled.”
The U.S. has 5,702 confirmed cases, 94 deaths and 17 recoveries, according to Johns Hopkins University. As of Tuesday, there are 67 confirmed cases in Ohio.
Kelly said she plans to take personal safety measures upon returning to the states — including self-quarantining herself for the recommended 14 days — but she feared the U.S. government was not taking COVID-19 seriously enough at the time.
Hill said that after landing in the U.S., she and her roommates were held in customs — with passengers from multiple other flights — for five hours waiting to be screened by health officials from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
She said it felt like 1,000 people were weaving through many rows of lines in a room at Chicago O’Hare International Airport, and that the constant shuffling forward toward custom officials made it difficult to sit or use the bathroom.
“There was one set of bathrooms available for everyone far back in the line, so it was difficult to use without losing your group or potential to meet with an agent,” Hill said. “I was awake for a total of 22 hours.”
Hill said there were three lines they had to go through before they left. While in line to speak to a customs agent — who Hill said only asked her what countries she visited — snacks and water bottles were passed out but that they ran out before she received anything. Though she eventually got a snack, she said she had not eaten since before her flight and was feeling faint in line.
Hill said she was in the first line for two-and-a-half hours.
The second line — which Hill said she waited in for two hours — ended at a customs police officer who confirmed her address and phone number. She said there was no order to the line because officers moved people around frequently.
Hill said standing in the third line was the first time she had her temperature taken. She said she and her roommates were also asked if they had coughs or if they felt sick.
“We weren’t told to quarantine, but we were told to take our temperature twice a day for two weeks and given a packet with health resources and information,” Hill said.
Though the screening process is supposed to limit citizens’ potential exposure to COVID-19, Hill said she felt it did the opposite of that.
“I feel like our proximity to others traveling around the world in the process only aided the spread of the virus,” she said.
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