China: Cabin Crew Should Wear Diapers on Overseas Flights

Flight attendants on mainland Chinese airlines may soon be facing the prospect of working on long-haul flights where they're not allowed to use the bathrooms. New guidance from the Civil Aviation Administration of China suggests that cabin crew on flights to and from countries with high COVID infection rates should wear diapers instead of using the plane bathroom, which was a suspected source of infection in at least one case, CNN reports. "It is recommended that cabin crew members wear disposable diapers and avoid using the lavatories barring special circumstances to avoid infection risks," the guidance issued Nov. 25 states.

The guidance also states that flight attendants' protective equipment should include "medical masks, double-layer disposable medical gloves, goggles, disposable hats, disposable protective clothing, and disposable shoe covers." The aviation authority says pilots should wear masks and goggles but it doesn't suggest that they wear diapers, Bloomberg reports. Another section of the "Technical Guidelines for Epidemic Prevention and Control for Airlines" guidelines suggests that curtains to be used to separate the cabin into a "clean area, buffer zone, passenger sitting area and [emergency] quarantine area." (More flight attendants stories.)