We are out of the 3 day restaurant quarantine now! I wanted to spend a little bit explaining how it all worked. Before leaving Minneapolis, we needed to take a rapid test 24 hours before departure on Thursday and fill out a long and confusing health questionnaire that I messed up twice and had to redo for both Joanna and me. Upon completion they email you a QR code that you have to input into an app for contract tracing. We arrived on Friday night local time and were escorted through the airport to get a PCR test. The requirement is to take a rapid test every day for a week along with an additional PCR test on day 2.
The first PCR test was easy and we got the results within 5 hours via text message. I submitted the results into the app and got an amber QR code. This is to let restaurants know that I’m currently in a quarantine time which expires after 3 days upon arrival. Lucky us that we got in at 11pm on Friday which counted as Day 0. I assumed they did 72 hour periods but they only count the days which was convenient for us to start going into restaurants on Monday morning rather than Tuesday so we saved a day.
We brought a large stack of rapid Covid tests to take every day, which needed to be submitted on a separate government website. Once the result comes out, it’s recommended to write your name, the date, and time you took the test to upload to the government form.
The 2nd PCR test that we had to take was easy enough. There are several official testing facilities peppered throughout the city. You just pick the one that’s closest to you and walk up with your ID and show them the app. They do a quick throat swab and it took about 15 hours to get my results. They give you a serial number to track the test results. I’m not sure why this one is different where it doesn’t email/text you and you have to pull the results yourself but it is what it is.
I think how Hong Kong implemented their contract tracing system is what the US should have done but no one would have enforced it as strictly as they do here. Failure for the restaurant to enforce the rules will result in them and you being fined. How it works is that every restaurant has a QR code that you use to scan in the StayHomeSafe app. That pops up a new QR code on your phone and you scan that code on the restaurant’s smart phone scanner at the front of the restaurant which makes a door bell sound to notify them you’re good to enter. Once you’re done eating, you go into the app to tell them you’ve left the establishment.
What’s kind of funny is that I was featured recently on the local news a few months ago criticizing the state of Minnesota for it’s really poorly designed covid tracing app. If you test positive you have to call the Department of MN for them to give you a code to enter into the app which will notify anyone that also has the app that they’ve been near someone who tested positive within the last 2 weeks. Not at all helpful especially because it doesn’t accept rapid test results and you have to go in to get a PCR, which doesn’t make sense if you’re already really sick with covid.
Mask wearing is still mandatory in public spaces both inside and out. I’ve seen better mask compliance in infants here than full grown adults who act like infants back home.
Finally it was Monday morning and we were confident enough to visit our Grandma. Due to her being 104, we just had to practice extra precautions to reduce any risk of getting her sick. I got a notification on the contract tracing app that my amber QR code has changed to blue which means we can go out to eat now.
