Delivering a large-scale evacuation during the pandemic

As the COVID-19 outbreak spread from China to the rest of the world, governments started to ramp up their responses with aggressively implemented travel restrictions. The higher education sector had the foresight to identify the trajectory of the crisis and ensure that their staff and students were brought home before the restrictions made this impossible.

The University of Western Australia contacted Healix to assist with the repatriation of 160 students and staff members from around the world. Managing this volume of evacuations presented many challenges, but with the additional complications of COVID-19 related travel disruption and border closures, there was a particular need for a well-coordinated response. The evacuees were spread across almost 20 countries, many deployed in field work in isolated areas away from transport hubs. Some were in countries already heavily impacted by COVID-19, creating challenges such as obtaining medical clearances and finding flight routes through countries that were still permitting transit. Others had non-COVID-19 medical conditions to take into consideration, for which the input of Healix’s medical assistance team was invaluable. There were also evacuees with dependants and unique visa requirements to take into consideration, while every hour new border restrictions and flight cancellations were being announced.

Using commercial and charter flights, Healix successfully repatriated all evacuees to their country of residence or birth - or supported them to stand fast in their current location if they opted to do so.