Durban - It has been a nerve-racking experience for my wife Salma and I since we
heard about the Covid-19 virus. It will
be another 72 hours before our minds
can be at rest.
My daughter Laila Bera left in August 2019 for Connecticut College in the US to study international relations and economics.
It was a crowning moment for the family because Laila had worked hard throughout her schooling career and was awarded a bursary.
Laila and her friends had travelled from the US to Tulum in Mexico for a week in March.
They returned to the campus on Saturday during their spring break - and at the height of the epidemic.
Our stress level was very high because America is on the list of high-risk countries for transmission of the virus.
We were expecting her to return in mid-May, but President Donald Trump placed the US on lockdown and advised all international students to return home while he shut down schools.
On Tuesday she boarded a flight from JFK International Airport to ORTambo International Airport.
She sat next to a person coming from Germany.
When they disembarked from the plane she was not screened by any person at the airport. Neither were any other passengers.
The same routine followed at King Shaka International Airport yesterday.
Here Salma enquired at the information counter as to why were there no screenings and was handed a list of four numbers to call at the airport.
A person who answered the phone directed the call to a supervisor. He/she could not be reached.
Upon her disembarkation, we immediately took Laila to a reputable lab in Durban to have her coronavirus swab test done.
The results will be given to the doctor we see to advise us further. It’s going to be stressful until Saturday.
I then advised my editor and human resources division of the situation. I was told to work from home and to only return to work with a medical certificate stating that I was clear of the virus.
At home we had already set up a bedroom for Laila in an outbuilding.
My father is 72 and my mother 67. I also have a 2-year-old girl and a 15-year-old daughter, all of whom we have to isolate her from.
Laila came home, greeted everyone and went for her mother’s home-made milk tart.
It was the only welcome gift. No hugs or kisses from the grandparents or her two younger siblings. I am even scared to open a gift she brought for me. Nearly half of our sanitiser went on her two suitcases.
At the onset we told her to leave JFK in an old set of clothes, which we would discard in a bin when she got to the airport. But she wanted to look her best and wore clothes we can’t throw away.
Now we have to worry about the car being infected.
We speak to her through the room window.
* When contacted by Dawood, Airports Company South Africa (Acsa) said activities at airports related to Covid-19 are carried out by or under the direction of Port Health, which is an entity of the Health Department.
The Department and National Institute for Communicable diseases had not returned Dawood’s calls by the time
of publication.
The Acsa statement read: Since the outbreak started in China earlier this year, the South African government has put in place measures to screen visitors entering the country.
The Department of Health and its entity Port Health are responsible for implementing a variety of detection and management procedures to identify potentially infected passengers at the country’s three main international airports: OR Tambo International, Cape Town International and King Shaka International.
Officials continue to use thermal screening on all passengers entering South Africa, with those passengers identified as potentially infected at the airport then channelled to the National Institute of Communicable Diseases for further testing.
All passengers are also asked to complete a questionnaire before landing to assist with the detection and tracing of potential infections from high-risk areas.