Coronavirus (COVID-19) Respiratory illness - Effect on Travel

[Pushka]

This would be a nightmare!....confined to your room for 14 days!!!

From 'happiest ship on the seas' to total lockdown: Life on coronavirus-hit ship

Cruise ship passenger Gay Courter said there were hall monitors to make sure everyone stayed in their cabins, and that they weren't being updated on the situation regularly.

www.smh.com.au

A UK guy doing video blogs as well. We cruised on this ship two years ago.

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[get me outta here]

Just imagine if you’d booked an inside cabin as some people say, “I don’t plan on being in my cabin”.

This would be a nightmare!....confined to your room for 14 days!!!

From 'happiest ship on the seas' to total lockdown: Life on coronavirus-hit ship

Cruise ship passenger Gay Courter said there were hall monitors to make sure everyone stayed in their cabins, and that they weren't being updated on the situation regularly.

www.smh.com.au

 

[defurax]

Look like the Federated States of Micronesia have taken the most extreme measures. This means no US or Australian tourists!

Federated States of Micronesia
11:23 am - 5 February 2020

Federated States of Micronesia (FSM) authorities have set up new entry measures due to the 2019 novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV). You must spend at least 14 days in a country with no confirmed cases of coronavirus before entering FSM. If you have visited, or transited mainland China since 6 January 2020 you will be denied entry to FSM. Check with your airline or tour operator to confirm you meet all entry requirements.



We haven't changed our level of advice:

Exercise normal safety precautions in FSM.

 

[Pushka]

A UK guy doing video blogs as well. We cruised on this ship two years ago.

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To all the medicoes here. This guy is diabetic and seems to be having issues given the diet restrictions. Any advice?

Post automatically merged: Feb 5, 2020

Look like the Federated States of Micronesia have taken the most extreme measures. This means no US or Australian tourists!

Federated States of Micronesia
11:23 am - 5 February 2020

Federated States of Micronesia (FSM) authorities have set up new entry measures due to the 2019 novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV). You must spend at least 14 days in a country with no confirmed cases of coronavirus before entering FSM. If you have visited, or transited mainland China since 6 January 2020 you will be denied entry to FSM. Check with your airline or tour operator to confirm you meet all entry requirements.



We haven't changed our level of advice:

Exercise normal safety precautions in FSM.

That pretty much means no one now.

 

[amaroo]

The next smart step when deciding to close a border....

WHO concerned Indonesia appears to be coronavirus free

It comes as an Australian living in Bali, who has been diagnosed with pneumonia, criticises local testing procedures and handling of his case.

www.smh.com.au

 

[Melburnian1]

...China airlines wants to have flights out of Beijing to the USA.I doubt the Americans will agree.

Air China's Unique Strategy For Maintaining US Flights

While most airlines are cutting flights between the US and mainland China, here's what Air China is doing to maintain at least some flights.

onemileatatime.com

...

Easy small mistake to make, but you may have meant 'Air China' as 'China Airlines' is from that separate nation, Taiwan.

 

[Melburnian1]

Pushka, this continues to be a 'day at a time' situation, and cruise ship bookings may be made ages in advance, but due to publicity re ships being 'isolated' and passengers confined to their suite/room (as you've commented upon a couple of pages ago), can you foresee cruise companies having to make large numbers of refunds, and forward bookings markedly declining?

Or are you guys and gals who cruise such stalwarts or stoics that nothing stops you from boarding?

 

[Quickstatus]

Cruise ship diabetic guy will be able to adjust his insulin to the food he is getting. So long as he is getting some food he will be Ok. Most diabetics these days are well educated on the management.

 

[Himeno]

Awful for the locals. I wonder why - did they not have access to immunisation?

2 doses of MMR vaccine were mixed improperly and contaminated, leading to the deaths of 2 babies in mid 2018. An anti-vax movement took over and the vaccination rate fell from 74% to 31% (had been 90% in 2013).
A measles outbreak started after an infected tourist visited the island from New Zealand.
Government response included closing the schools, imposing a curfew, making MMR vaccine mandatory and requiring that unvaccinated houses place a red flag on the door to warn others and mark them for a visit by mobile vaccination teams. They got the vaccination rate up to 94% by Dec 20.

 

[rogerkambah]

Can you tell me where you are getting this information from as I expect that when other US carriers follow QF will be forced to consider ceasing flights as well. I am booked to HKG on 17 February so the pressure is mounting to cancel, as rescheduling is a great unknown.

We are booked QF29 ex MEL that day, transiting HKG to BKK on EK.
Considering whether to pull the pin, but will probably decide mid next week.

 

[get me outta here]

“Coronavirus: Cathay Pacific asks all 27,000 employees to take turns on three weeks unpaid leave
Airline struggling in face of deadly virus has already announced cuts to its flying schedule
CEO says situation faced by Cathay ‘just as grave’ as 2009 global financial crisis

https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/transport/article/3049132/coronavirus-cathay-pacific-asks-all-27000-employees-take“

 

[CMA222]

We are booked QF29 ex MEL that day, transiting HKG to BKK on EK.
Considering whether to pull the pin, but will probably decide mid next week.

I am on the same flight. If things do not deteriorate further I expect QF will be flying.

 

[Pushka]

Pushka, this continues to be a 'day at a time' situation, and cruise ship bookings may be made ages in advance, but due to publicity re ships being 'isolated' and passengers confined to their suite/room (as you've commented upon a couple of pages ago), can you foresee cruise companies having to make large numbers of refunds, and forward bookings markedly declining?

Or are you guys and gals who cruise such stalwarts or stoics that nothing stops you from boarding?

It’s a very good question. Cruise lines are already cancelling cruises. Viking River Cruises runs river cruises through the middle of China from Wuhan to somewhere else on that River. They are booked out years in advance and run March through September. Yesterday they announced that All river cruises have now been cancelled from the first of March through end of June. They run at around a minimum $16,000 ++ USD a cabin so this is a massive outlay for them as they were also doing a huge expenditure investment building several new ocean ships. People were worried about this before the Virus and Viking is a privately owned company. I wonder if it will make it through.

Princess have just cancelled several cruises on the now floating hot mess, Princess Diamond. There was another issue for another cruise in Hong Kong today.

The issue cruise lines face is that on every cruise, at least a few will have a nasty hacking cough - comes with the territory. I’ve had it twice and was pretty unwell. That will now be called a corona virus until tests prove otherwise but in the meantime the whole ship is quarantined and emergency measures put in place.

Im not scared of getting the virus, I am worried about being quarantined for 14 days simply because of the virus being detected. I love cruising as you know, but in July we are on another cruise with our final payment due in late May. It is not a guarantee we will make that payment right now.

Anyone here pondered the effects of this on the Olympic Games in Japan?

 

[PineappleSkip]

Latest Situation of Novel Coronavirus Inflection in Hong Kong

Latest Situation of Novel Coronavirus Inflection in Hong Kong

chp-dashboard.geodata.gov.hk

So with 868 of 889 determined cases in HKG ruled out, that suggests about 2.4% of suspected cases there being positive. Seems plausible for something with flu-like symptoms.

Still don’t see any indication that SIN (28 cases) is a relative safe haven and HKG (21 cases) is not. Apart from the underlying flow of people between HKG and mainland, which has significantly slowed. HK announced mandatory quarantine for visitors from mainland, but not to take effect until Saturday.

Meanwhile Financial Times has an interesting article on Coronavirus and Africa. Testing can now be done (only) in SA and Senegal. Botswana took a week to announce a negative result to its first suspected case. Most African airlines have suspended flights to China, although Ethiopian and Air Algerie haven’t, with ET continuing to fly to Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Chengdu. Even if they cancelled flights, indirect travel options would still exist, such as EK via Beijing.

Re Tokyo Olympics, organisers commenting nCoV is a big worry for them and there have been impacts already.


cheers skip.

 

[RooFlyer]

Probably could have, but I thought the comment from one person that he came with low expectations but found it OK, while people who came with high expectations were the ones having issues. I had a lot to do with parents when I was involved in junior sport at a national and international level and I know you can get one group who just makes do and makes the most of everything and others where nothing is good enough.

Did anyone hear the intrepid ABC reporter on Christmas Island, on AM this morning? She hiked to the detention centre fence, to interview someone they have been following. I came in a bit late and could just hear the lady saying that 'you just deal with it', but the reporter was concerned the lady's son wasn't going to have a party for his birthday. Then the piece turned serious. The reporter described her own problems, such as having to hike about 15 mins to the fence, than then drive back to town, avoiding ... get this ... potholes and migrating crabs!

Then we heard from an islander that he wasn't concerned about having the people in the camp ("its not that they have the virus - its just isolation" and then, to hear the other side, a lady who - gasp! - who had heard a story from someone in Perth that someone had moved away from someone in a queue who said they came from Christmas Island! This apparently was worth broadcasting.

Fair dinkum, the whole piece should have been cut and an interview with a doctor giving us some info on, I dunno ... progress on a vaccine, or maybe just their golf handicap would have been more relevant.

 

[Pushka]

Did anyone hear the intrepid ABC reporter on Christmas Island, on AM this morning? She hiked to the detention centre fence, to interview someone they have been following. I came in a bit late and could just hear the lady saying that 'you just deal with it', but the reporter was concerned the lady's son wasn't going to have a party for his birthday. Then the piece turned serious. The reporter described her own problems, such as having to hike about 15 mins to the fence, than then drive back to town, avoiding ... get this ... potholes and migrating crabs!

Then we heard from an islander that he wasn't concerned about having the people in the camp ("its not that they have the virus - its just isolation" and then, to hear the other side, a lady who - gasp! - who had heard a story from someone in Perth that someone had moved away from someone in a queue who said they came from Christmas Island! This apparently was worth broadcasting.

Fair dinkum, the whole piece should have been cut and an interview with a doctor giving us some info on, I dunno ... progress on a vaccine, or maybe just their gold handicap would have been more relevant.

They are flogging a dead horse though. Most people feel that isolation is required, CI is a bit desperate but we have no real facility otherwise. Clearly we should be building something in Australia. Well, we used to have infectious clinics back pre immunisation days - my Aunty developed diphtheria and was isolated from her family for months as a young child but we have sold off all the land. In the UK there is a specialist facility where people are being sent - purpose built for infectious disease control, up in the Wirral!

 

[I love to travel]

Expedia has stopped selling all travel to China from its US website .

 

[jase05]

So just an innocent mistake or the Chinese covering their tracks?
Very scary if it’s legitimate

Deleted pic claims 25k virus deaths

A death tally published by Chinese web giant Tencent before being quickly deleted has sparked debate over the true number of coronavirus victims and whether it is much higher than official statistics show.

www.news.com.au

 

[mrsterryn]

Still on travel topic
I often catch a bus to Sydney City which has a couple of international student colleges en route
Any time of the day students are getting on or off buses in that area
None today
A flow on effect I hadn't considered .
Less passengers on buses

 

[Must...Fly!]

Did anyone hear the intrepid ABC reporter on Christmas Island, on AM this morning? She hiked to the detention centre fence, to interview someone they have been following. I came in a bit late and could just hear the lady saying that 'you just deal with it', but the reporter was concerned the lady's son wasn't going to have a party for his birthday. Then the piece turned serious. The reporter described her own problems, such as having to hike about 15 mins to the fence, than then drive back to town, avoiding ... get this ... potholes and migrating crabs!

What methods did this genius reporter utilise to prevent cross-contamination?