Unworthy of Portugal – Observer
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Sunday, January 2nd. We woke up at 7 am and the news was filled with the same slogans: “Synlab promises to test all passengers with and without marking“. It just doesn’t say when and us with a plane to catch today.
We do not reside in Lisbon and until then it takes almost 2 hours to reach the airport at 10:30, 8 hours before the flight, 6 hours before check-in.
Upon arrival, it was enough to walk a few meters to understand one of the reasons for the long lines for testing the new coronavirus: inside the airport a small sign indicates the same line for those planning to fly in the next few days and it is empty. Because nobody sees the sign.
On the contrary, what everyone sees is the meandering queue outside the airport, the so-called priority queue for those who have a flight that day and to which everyone who arrives joins, with a flight for today and no flight for today, with appointment and without booking, with plane ticket and no plane ticket, no sorting or trimming, just people, many and us too, at the end of the line and waiting.
Now we engender the priority queue signage as phrases “Passengers with a flight today / Passengers flying y ”and quickly we have in the queue all the passengers about to travel, even if the test has already been done, as there is no word on the sign that refers to the queue for testing.
It took an hour and a half to get into the airport and the clock to strike noon. With the check-in opening at 16 and 30, we started to make ends meet and the growing possibility of missing the flight. Us and the people around us in a very slow march at Lisbon airport.
In the absence of anyone giving us directions on waiting times and attendance, we searched the enclosure for someone who could inform us but there is no one in sight, only police elements, many in the case of possible disorder, and reporting teams from RTP, CNN Portugal, SIC, among others.
Next to the check-in counters on the top floor, a guy advises us to try to take a test at the airport pharmacy, but either the guy doesn’t see the news or he doesn’t deviate from being working there because when we explained about the lack of screening at the lower floor plus the endless crowd of passengers, the answer was just one: “You know, people are a little slow“.
Conclusion: if we miss the return flight today, it’s our fault.
It is by no means the fault of a laboratory that has been on call since Christmas, and which consequently sees fit to have only six people testing the flights of 200 daily flights.
Likewise, it is not the fault of a government that lends itself to creating testing posts all over Lisbon, posts that were promptly converted into votes but closed on the New Year and the following Sunday, leaving tourists, foreigners and emigrants to the fate of a single test center when everyone is now looking to return to their lives. Will the government think that those who travel do not vote? We voted and we are guaranteed to vote.
And the Directorate General of Health is certainly not to blame for putting people under the same roof, where social distancing is nothing but a bad joke.
Note: in 14 days in Portugal we performed 14 self-tests, all of them negative. Likewise, we refrain from seeing half of the family in the name of mutual health and safety until the end and after respecting all the rules run the risk of becoming infected by carrying out a test against the virus we all shy away from.
Nor will tourism in Portugal be to blame for this sad farewell card for those who visit us with the certainty of never returning after this show.
An employee of Securitas saved us, perplexed when we told her about the agglomeration without order or connection. With the help of a colleague, he volunteered to make the separation between passengers and unmarked, the two acting as Synlab elements while reorganizing rows and rows, rescuing distressed passengers from the crowd, including this one who called you to surf with suitcases and backpacks through endless runners.
And if with your effort we still took 5 hours on our feet to carry out the unsuccessful test, what would have become of us without this divine intervention? Unfortunately, we saw who had missed their flight.
And because literally all passengers are stranded in the test area, when it was our turn to board we found an empty airport.
It is now 23 hours and we are approaching London. The trip, this Christmas trip after two years away from the festive season, ended in the worst way: without any nostalgia for Portugal. Without any desire to stay, just leave.
Not after this. Not after the lack of information, not after the lack of information, not after the lack of staff, not after the chaos, the hours, the queues, the stress, the disorganization and not after waking up at 7 am to get to home almost 19 hours later and with a day’s work waiting tomorrow.
On Saturday, the number of passengers was such that the tests did not end until 4:00 in the morning. Today, whoever arrived at 6 am without an appointment took 9 hours to perform a test.
And if in the end we were able to board it was because between Italians, English, Portuguese and Spaniards we tried to know, ask, inform and help. We are not sluggish, quite the contrary.