Airport Becomes Cardboard Box Hotel For COVID Testing

Story By: Alex Cope, Sub Editor: Joseph Golder, Agency: Central European News

These images show how an airport in Japan has been turned into a “cardboard box hotel” complete with dozens of beds made out of the disposable boxes for passengers awaiting coronavirus test results.

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The beds were created for passengers arriving in Narita Airport in Tokyo from coronavirus-hit locations in Europe and the United States who are forced to undergo mandatory screening for coronavirus before being allowed into Japan.

The passengers can only leave the airport if they are with friend or family in a private vehicle before their test results come back, so the airport has created dozens of cardboard box beds which those stranded in the terminal can pay to use.

The images show the beds are set out in the terminal with partitions at alternating corners and have one full open side.

Passengers reportedly have to pay 15,000 JPY (111 GBP) to stay in the boxes for two days, with one online review of a passenger who arrived from Vietnam saying the mattresses were “pretty good”.

CEN/@wasabi1094

Reports state snacks and drinks were provided as part of the deal and passengers are allowed to leave if their results come back negative, but are still banned from using public transport.

The airport closed one of its runways yesterday for the first time since it opened in 1978 after seeing an 85-percent drop in international flights.

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