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

[PineappleSkip]

VA confirmed they are out of HKG.

Permanently, by the look of things. Still selling seats on their website for flights up to 29 Feb

cheers skip

 

[p--and--t]

Interesting charts I found online.....guess we can derive some comfort from them....

 

[Himeno]

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

It is fake

COVID-19 (COronaVIrus Disease of 2019) discussion thread

Fake The cited website has no connection to Tencent DXY.cn - Wikipedia

forums.spacebattles.com

 

[stoney]

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?

Yes, I am in Japan, at this stage, during the OG's but not for the games. This thing is getting a little worrying as my trip OTW OWA commencing in June. Still remaining optimistic at this point.

 

[dajop]

Interesting charts I found online.....guess we can derive some comfort from them....

View attachment 205497


View attachment 205498

If you delve into the statistics, I'm not sure I'd say Thailand (score of 73.2) is much more prepared than Singapore (58.7),.Singapore is only marginally more prepared than Indonesia (56.6), who in turn is better prepared than New Zealand (54.0). In fact extremely difficult to believe that Indonesia, rates anywhere near Singapore or NZ on "pandemic preparedness".

 

[DC3]

Interesting charts I found online.....guess we can derive some comfort from them....

What? So the Kiwis are only on-par with China?

 

[p--and--t]

If you delve into the statistics, I'm not sure I'd say Thailand (score of 73.2) is much more prepared than Singapore (58.7),.Singapore is only marginally more prepared than Indonesia (56.6), who in turn is better prepared than New Zealand (54.0). In fact extremely difficult to believe that Indonesia, rates anywhere near Singapore or NZ on "pandemic preparedness".

I'm not saying they are right or wrong, I presented an information source AFFers could look at.

I will point out though, it doesn't on the surface seem it is the result of one organisation or one country or one lobby group or someone sticking their wet finger in the air. There are some highly respected names in the group........

To create the GHS Index, NTI, JHU, and the EIU project team—with generous grants from the Open Philanthropy Project, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and the Robertson Foundation—worked with an international advisory panel of 21 experts from 13 countries to create a detailed and comprehensive framework of 140 questions, organized across 6 categories, 34 indicators, and 85 subindicators to assess a country’s capability to prevent and mitigate epidemics and pandemics. ​

I was heartened that a panel of experts from 13 countries thought AU was somewhere near the top.

 

[Melburnian1]

A Filipina maid who died in Dubai, UAE tested positive for coronavirus (although the odd comment at the bottom implies 'may be (that previous virus) MERS'):

BREAKING: Filipina domestic worker in Dubai dead from coronavirus – Bello

MANILA, Philippines – A female household worker who recently died in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, has tested positive for coronavirus, Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III confirmed

globalnation.inquirer.net

If nCov, let's delete the notion that this virus isn't in the Middle East.

 

[dajop]

I'm not saying they are right or wrong, I presented an information source AFFers could look at.

I will point out though, it doesn't on the surface seem it is the result of one organisation or one country or one lobby group or someone sticking their wet finger in the air. There are some highly respected names in the group........

To create the GHS Index, NTI, JHU, and the EIU project team—with generous grants from the Open Philanthropy Project, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and the Robertson Foundation—worked with an international advisory panel of 21 experts from 13 countries to create a detailed and comprehensive framework of 140 questions, organized across 6 categories, 34 indicators, and 85 subindicators to assess a country’s capability to prevent and mitigate epidemics and pandemics. ​

I was heartened that a panel of experts from 13 countries thought AU was somewhere near the top.

Oh I have no doubt they've done a good assessment based on the information they've been told, and that officials have wanted them to see. I am sure US and Australia and rankings like that are reasonably accurate. But, in my dealings with my colleagues in some countries over many years, many are expert in telling you what they think you want to hear, but you to have really probe to understand the real situation. I've also seen international organisations come in to do an assessment and it's amazing the picture that is painted bears little correlation to reality. I don't know for sure, I suspect that perhaps Indonesia and Thailand's preparedness scores could be overstated as a result.

 

[PineappleSkip]

Someone, somewhere, upthread, mentioned the index of pandemic preparedness (or something like that) itself.

Noone is denying nCoV is in the MidEast, there were 5 cases reported by Dubai a week ago, . Dubai has just denied the claim the Filipina maid died from Coronavirus there. Philippines Ministry of Health now also stating the death in Dubai was not nCoV.

Interesting DW article on the coverup in China in early days. The CCP doing something of an oblique mea culpa and the Mayor of Wuhan pointing the bone at Beijing. Obliquely of course.

 

[zenyattamondatta]

Redirect Notice

A key difference from the Princess ship is that those people have already entered Japan.

 

[YSSY]

We are booked on flights in April with China Airlines to Rome via Taipei, however Italy has banned all flights from China until late April and included Taiwan in that, much to Taiwan’s disappointment.
At the moment I’m just waiting to see what happens, 2 months is a long time in the big scheme of things. Ultimately, if the flights don’t resume then options are fly via Vienna or refund and rebook (which at today’s rates will probably leave me $3k out of pocket which I’m doubtful travel insurance will cover). The other issue is whether we would be allowed to join our cruise having flown via Taiwan...

 

[I love to travel]

Japan cruise ship has 41 new cases. And we know that the data point is true. As awful as it is for the people on the ship I think that the data on incubation times spread in public places and possibly air conditioning systems will be invaluable in determining next steps for governments around the world.

 

[stoney]

Wow! If it is able to be spread by AC that would be grave (opps, unintentional pun) for not only the ship but planes, buildings etc. Can you imagine being in an inside cabin without it?

 

[sjk]

Japan cruise ship has 41 new cases. And we know that the data point is true. As awful as it is for the people on the ship I think that the data on incubation times spread in public places and possibly air conditioning systems will be invaluable in determining next steps for governments around the world.

61 positive cases out of 273 tests, and for some reason it wasn't deemed necessary to test the other roughly 3,400 people on board... not sure how sensible the 'quarantine' is under such circumstances.

 

[Cruiser Elite]

FWIW I was in WW this morn and a Chinese couple loaded up their trolley with every tube of hand sanitizer on the shelves - staff were scurrying around asking each other if there is a limit on purchases - lots of shoulder shrugging going on but I would expect WW will implement a purchase limit policy very quickly

 

[jakeseven7]

Without giving too much away what type of company do you work for and how big are they?

In health, large company (>100K employees)

Are you working at Hypochondriac Pty Ltd!

Seriously, is it because of the insurer or a rather excessive sense of duty of care from your employer?

I work for a large company (>100K employees), they err on the conservative side.

Are the countries likely to involve work travel all in Asia, or would it include Canada, NZ etc?

APAC mostly and US.

 

[I love to travel]

In health, large company (>100K employees)




I work for a large company (>100K employees), they err on the conservative side.



APAC mostly and US.

Conservative approach but coming from a health company it's telling how serious this might end up being.

 

[p--and--t]

Conservative approach but coming from a health company it's telling how serious this might end up being.

I would expect them to be super conservative, not a good look for a health industry multi-national to have large numbers of staff effected by an epidemic/pandemic. They will want to look squeaky clean.

 

[lovetravellingoz]

Japan cruise ship has 41 new cases.

I have not seen the report, but is that people on board the ship claimed to have developed symptoms of upper respiratory tract infections, or of actual coronavius?


I did see one report stating that 10 people who had coronavirus had been transferred to Japanese Hospitals for treatment.