A Kamloops woman who has spent two weeks in Egypt says she can’t wait to get back on Canadian soil.
Debbie Ryan travelled there for a tour, and during a leg of that – a three-day Nile River cruise – she was one of about 30 people tested for COVID-19, out of about 250 on the ship.
She tested negative but didn’t trust the process of testing, describing it as a “complete debacle.” She says before her test results even came back, the people tested were let off the ship when it docked.
“Which was a big surprise to us, because we at that time we thought we’d have to wait 48 hours to get our results back, and then depending on that would be let off the ship or be quarantined. So it was a big surprise that we were actually let go without our results, because we went on the tours with thousands of people.
As a retired nurse, Ryan says she was also horrified to see health officials mixing clean and dirty and clean equipment.
“The men in the hazmat suits had dust masks on, certainly not the N-95 masks or any masks that are going to screen out COVID virus. Then they took off the hazmat suits and left them on the tables. If you’re a nurse, or any kind of medical person, you know that’s a complete break in technique and cross contamination,” she says, adding that a health official in his dirty hazmat suit with a mask on his head was able to get lunch in the dining room.
“If we didn’t have COVID individually, we were certainly going to get it from cross-contamination… All of the equipment had been mixed up with the boat supplies. It was just really startling. So my concern was… we certainly might get it from what they had done.”
Ryan says she’ll be flying out of Cairo at 6 a.m. local time tomorrow, stopping at the Heathrow Airport before flying to Vancouver and connecting to Kamloops.
And when it rains it pours; Ryan says the region is seeing “biblical” rains as she prepares to depart. Reports say the storm has killed at least 21 people since Wednesday, mostly in rural and run-down areas.
“I can’t wait to get on Canadian soil. I’m going to have to run the gamut in London, go through questionnaires apparently coming into Vancouver. But I just want to say to people, this isn’t a drill. We haven’t been through this before. I’m hoping everybody will be prepared. I’m not saying we need to panic,” Ryan says.
“Your medications, you need to have food stored or stocked. And the biggest thing I think is to have some recognition and compassion for the people around you.”
(Photo: Debbie Ryan)
