Narrative:

Due to a re-route; I was scheduled to deadhead ZZZ-ZZZ1. After boarding had completed; ground operations requested four people move up from the back of the aircraft to sit in rows 2-8 for weight and balance (x-zone count). Since the passengers had just finished sanitizing their seat areas they were reluctant to move; so no one did. A second PA was made; specifically telling the passengers at the very back of the aircraft (all deadheading crew members) they were going to have to move up. I was required to abandon my social distancing and sit in row 2. After re-sanitizing my new seat; I sat with a passenger directly in front of me; one directly behind me; and one directly across from me. I had to sit there for about 20 minutes; before takeoff; and waited until the ride smoothed out and moved back to the back of the aircraft to space myself away from other passengers and crew. This event compromised my ability to protect myself as much as possible.crews need to be specifically exempted from moving to accommodate a zone count and this procedure needs to be implemented immediately; and pushed to all operational groups.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: Deadheading pilot reported that passengers in the back of the aircraft were told to move to seats at the front of the aircraft to accommodate a zone count; which required abandoning social distancing and sanitizing new seats.

Narrative: Due to a re-route; I was scheduled to deadhead ZZZ-ZZZ1. After boarding had completed; Ground Operations requested four people move up from the back of the aircraft to sit in rows 2-8 for weight and balance (X-Zone count). Since the passengers had just finished sanitizing their seat areas they were reluctant to move; so no one did. A second PA was made; specifically telling the passengers at the very back of the aircraft (all deadheading crew members) they were going to have to move up. I was required to abandon my social distancing and sit in row 2. After re-sanitizing my new seat; I sat with a passenger directly in front of me; one directly behind me; and one directly across from me. I had to sit there for about 20 minutes; before takeoff; and waited until the ride smoothed out and moved back to the back of the aircraft to space myself away from other passengers and crew. This event compromised my ability to protect myself as much as possible.Crews need to be specifically exempted from moving to accommodate a Zone count and this procedure needs to be implemented immediately; and pushed to all operational groups.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.