With Covid-19 disease upending plans and commerce globally, expert advice on how to think about traveling now. Get an informed guide to the global outbreak with our daily Coronavirus
newsletter.
[This article was originally published on February 20th. It has been updated to reflect new developments.
For the latest updates, read the New York Times’s coronavirus coverage here. ] The coronavirus outbreak, which has sickened almost 80,000 in Asia and killed more than 2,600 worldwide, has also upended travel and commerce across the world. In light of the spread of the Covid-19 disease, would-be travelers to Asia and even parts of the world with few or no cases are wondering what to do. The Times asked readers for their most pressing questions and got a flurry of queries: Should I cancel my trip to Asia, despite the financial penalties?
Or go ahead? What about going to other parts of the world? How hard is it to disinfect an airplane, anyway, and is a mask enough to protect from the virus? For anyone planning to travel, the website of the World Health Organization is a good starting point.
(W. H. O. has been issuing daily updates about the spread of Covid-19 and the status of cases.
) The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which has advised Americans to cancel all nonessential travel to China, and said on Tuesday that Americans should brace for the likelihood that the coronavirus will spread to communities in the United States, also offers information and guides for travelers. The Times has a map of the number of cases reported in each country. In addition to those agencies, travelers should consult the websites of their home country and their intended destination to see what policies have been put in place. “You should also be double careful to do the things we say everyone should always do, like hand washing with soap and water, especially after touching surfaces or coming in contact with someone who has been coughing,” said David Eisenman, director of University of California, Los Angeles’s Center for Public Health and Disasters, and professor of community health sciences at the university’s Fielding School of Public Health.
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“You should be avoiding close contact with others if you’re sick and you should have your flu shot. ” Here are some of the most common questions and the current advice from health and travel experts. Questions have been combined and condensed for clarity. Readers asked about destinations thousands of miles from Wuhan, China, where the coronavirus outbreak started, including Ireland, Argentina and Vancouver (the last city made one traveler nervous because of its close ties to China).
Dr. Eisenman and other doctors said that from a medical standpoint, there isn’t any current reason to skip a trip to a country where few or no cases of the coronavirus have been reported. “You have to evaluate your trip week to week, if not day to day,” said Bernard Camins, medical director for infection prevention at the Mount Sinai Health System. “But if you’re looking at a place where there are no cases, there’s no question you should continue on your trip.
” (Dr. Camins has trips to Europe planned for this spring and is not canceling. ) The question becomes more difficult the closer to the heart of the outbreak you are planning to travel, Dr. Camins said.
In places like Singapore and Thailand, there have been cases, but there is no evidence that there is a lot of person-to-person transmission and the virus doesn’t seem to be out of control, he said. “The chances of you running into a person with it there is low, unless you’re a health care professional and you’re going to work in a hospital,” he said. He added: “The golden rule for travel right now should be this: If you’re the one who is sick, stay home, do not travel, wear a mask, even for the flu. ” All 16 people who had Covid-19 have been cured and no new cases have been recorded since Feb.
13, the health ministry said on Tuesday. The country’s prime minister officially declared Covid-19 an epidemic in Vietnam on Feb. 1, and authorities closed land borders with China, indefinitely stopped flights to and from China, and instituted a 14-day quarantine for anyone coming from affected areas in China. The government is also encouraging people to avoid public gatherings at the moment.
Updated Feb. 26, 2020 Although some cities that have registered infections have closed tourist attractions and heritage sites, the majority are still open to the public. Many festivals and events are going on as planned, but others have been postponed. For a detailed list, consult Vietnam’s tourism site, which has detailed information about traveling to the country.
Until recently, Cambodia said it had only one case of the coronavirus and Prime Minister Hun Sen made a point of not wearing a surgical mask in public. But then a passenger on the Westerdam, a Holland America Line boat that had been blocked from docking in five countries over fear of the virus, was diagnosed with Covid-19 disease after disembarking from the ship in Sihanoukville, throwing into question how well the virus was being contained. The C. D.
C. later said that the passenger’s diagnosis was a false positive. The U. S.
State Department has a Level 1 warning about traveling to Cambodia, which means that in its assessment there is currently no danger in traveling to the country. You can keep up-to-date with the department’s advisories at its website. Japan has reported more than 800 cases of coronavirus, with 674 of them coming from the Diamond Princess, a cruise ship that has been quarantined in Yokohama; two passengers on the ship have died. Japanese authorities allowed a number of people from the ship to leave, a decision that some health experts have questioned.
The C. D. C. has a Level 2 watch for coronavirus in Japan, which advises travelers to “practice enhanced precautions.
” The State Department raised its travel advisories for Japan on Saturday to Level 2, the second-lowest out of four grades, recommending that travelers “exercise increased caution” because of the coronavirus outbreak. Since Feb. 13, non-Japanese nationals who have visited Hubei and Zhejiang provinces in China within 14 days of arrival in Japan, or who have a Chinese passport issued in those provinces, are not allowed to land in Japan except under special circumstances. Japan’s prime minister, Shinzo Abe, on Wednesday asked the organizers of sports and cultural events scheduled for the first two weeks of March to consider postponing canceling them.
Some theme parks have closed, as have museums. Tokyo’s Nakameguro district is canceling its Cherry Blossom Festival and Okinawa is canceling its Azalea Festival, but the Hirosaki Cherry Blossom Festival is still scheduled to take place beginning at the end of April. Japan’s National Tourism Organization is maintaining a list of the attractions and events that have been canceled. The Tourism Organization is also advising travelers that medical expenses may be high in the event that you become sick or injured and need to go to the hospital in Japan.
“Please do not forget to take out the necessary travel insurance,” the tourist board said in a statement on its website. It is also encouraging tourists to take the same precautions people take during flu season when traveling. South Korea now has more than 1,200 cases confirmed; President Moon Jae-in empowered the government to lock down cities and restrict travel. The mayor of the city of Daegu asked residents to stay indoors after a group of people associated with a church contracted Covid-19.
Authorities have announced sixth deaths related to the coronavirus, and the United States Army Garrison Daegu restricted access to its base, according to a statement. On Monday night, the C. D. C.
raised its warning to a Level 3 alert for South Korea, and advised American citizens to avoid nonessential travel, saying that “there is limited access to adequate medical care in affected areas. ” The State Department also has a Level 2 advisory for South Korea. Eleven towns in the Lombardy region were locked down after cases of Covid-19 emerged in Codogno, southeast of Milan. Six people have died and more than 200 others have been infected, Angelo Borrelli, head of the country’s Civil Protection agency and the coordinator of the country’s coronavirus emergency response, said on Monday.
Mr. Borrelli said it is still safe to travel to Italy, but Codogno and 10 other towns in Lombardy, and Veneto are under lockdown and people are not allowed to enter or leave the area. Cities like Florence are safe to visit, according to Italian authorities. In Venice, Carnival has been suspended.
In the Veneto region, schools and museums were closed and officials in Milan closed museums, schools, nightclubs and bars. Catholic leaders canceled masses in the area. The C.
“D.”
C. issued a Level 2 travel advisory for Italy on Wednesday, urging travelers to practice enhanced precautions. The advisory also warns people to avoid contact with sick people and suggests that anyone who has been in Italy during the past 14 days and is feeling sick with fever, cough or difficulty breathing seek medical attention and avoid contact with others. Singapore has had 91 cases of coronavirus, but transiting through the airport is unlikely to bring travelers in contact with any of the sick.
Earlier this month the airport implemented rules to help keep the virus at bay. Anyone who has traveled to mainland China within 14 days of arriving at Changi is not allowed to enter Singapore or to travel through it. Additionally, Singapore’s Immigration and Checkpoints Authority suspended the issuance of new visas to people with Chinese passports. The airport also said it increased the frequency with which the airport is being cleaned and is using more disinfectants in the cleaning process.
Mr. Kuriga said that in his estimation, “Right now it’s safe to travel through there, but like with everything else, keep checking. ” Planes are small spaces with a lot of people on them, and can be involved in transmitting diseases. While it’s not clear if most airlines are changing their cleaning procedures because of the coronavirus, we do know how they typically clean airplane cabins.
“At Southwest, aircraft undergo regular cleanings in between flights, and a comprehensive cleaning when the aircraft is parked overnight,” a spokesman for the airline said. When the plane is cleaned, surfaces — including tray tables, seats and carpets — are cleaned. Curtis Blessing, a spokesman for American Airlines said planes are cleaned on a regular basis and the depth of the cleaning varies, depending on turn times and type of flight, but bathrooms are cleaned, floors are spot cleaned and visible trash is removed from seat pockets on all flights. “When ground time allows, galleys are cleaned, as are tray tables,” Mr.
Blessing said. “Transcontinental, Hawaii and international flights see an even deeper level of cleaning that includes cleaning of lavatories, tray tables and galley areas, as well as any surface areas throughout the aircraft. Floors are also vacuumed. ” Delta is supplying kits with hand sanitizer, gloves and surgical masks to passengers on all flights to and from Asia.
A Delta spokeswoman said the airline’s planes are “thoroughly cleaned for the safety of our customers and crew. ” A spokesman for Alaska Air said that bathrooms on the airline’s planes are cleaned between every flight, and tray tables are cleaned when a layover is longer than an hour. A thorough cleaning of the plane happens whenever a plane stays at an airport overnight. “Our existing cleaning and disinfecting chemicals are effective against viruses, and nothing about the novel coronavirus indicates that it’s resistant to these efforts,” he said.
Cruise lines have learned how to combat the norovirus after more than two decades of outbreaks, but some passengers still get sick. Ross Klein, a sociologist at Memorial University of Newfoundland who studies the cruise industry, said, “The cruise ships are well trained in ‘killing’ a virus and are quite proficient if they follow what they know and the protocols they have for norovirus. ” Those protocols don’t seem to have been followed on the Diamond Princess, the cruise boat that was quarantined in Yokohama, Japan, for two weeks. The quarantine has been criticized by experts for failing to keep Covid-19 from spreading between passengers and crew members, and two passengers on the ship have died.
“But that doesn’t mean the ship can’t be sanitized before taking on new passengers,” Mr. Klein said. “It is no more difficult than a land-based hotel. ” W.
H. O. says that if you are healthy, you only need to wear a mask if you are taking care of someone with a suspected coronavirus infection. The organization also suggests wearing the mask if you are the person sneezing or coughing.
“Masks are only effective when used in combination with frequent hand cleaning with alcohol-based hand rub or soap and water,” the organization says in its guide about how to best choose a mask, use it and dispose of it. The type of mask also makes a difference. An N95 mask reduces a wearer’s exposure to airborne particles, from small particle aerosols to large droplets, according to the C. D.
C. , which has a guide for understanding the differences between a regular surgical mask and an N95 respirator. Bizarre as it may sound, standard travel insurance doesn’t cover losses caused by a global health crisis — even one that’s been declared “a public health emergency of international concern” by W. H.
O. and for which the C. D. C.
has issued a Level 3 travel notice recommending that travelers avoid all nonessential travel to China. When it comes to travel insurance, so-called Cancel For Any Reason upgrades are the best course here. But they’re also very expensive and tend to cover only 50 to 75 percent of your trip, said Stan Sandberg, an industry expert and co-founder of TravelInsurance. com, a site that allows travelers to compare and buy travel insurance online.
“It’s important to note that with Cancel For Any Reason coverage, the insurance policy must be purchased within a set amount of days — usually 21 days or fewer, depending on the plan — after making the first payment for the trip, and the entire prepaid and nonrefundable cost of the trip must be insured. The trip must also be canceled more than 48 hours before the departure date,” Mr. Sandberg said. At Berkshire Hathaway Travel Protection, for example, C.
F. A. R. coverage costs an additional 40 percent of your total travel insurance premium.
The risk-reward ratio will vary by traveler. In addition to ratings and reviews of specific policies, TravelInsurance. com’s information about the claims process — and their respective outcomes — may be helpful in determining whether or not C. F.
A. R. coverage is worth the outlay. The short answer: Not really.
Trip cancellation and interruption insurance, designed to reimburse certain nonrefundable expenses when a trip is canceled or delayed, is a perk of many travel-focused credits cards, including the American Express Platinum and Delta SkyMiles Reserve, as well as both Chase Sapphire cards (Preferred and Reserve). But what’s actually covered varies, and health crises are particularly unforgiving to consumers. Chase Sapphire cards, for example, will only reimburse you if you’re quarantined “due to health reasons by a competent governmental authority having jurisdiction” — but not a “disinclination to travel due to an epidemic or pandemic. ” In other words, if you choose not to travel — even to quite reasonably avoid a region affected by the coronavirus — trip cancellation and interruption insurance won’t help.
American Express doesn’t have explicit epidemic inclusions (or exclusions), but cardholders might have luck claiming reimbursement by getting a doctor’s note stating that “a covered trip is medically inadvisable. ” Older adults and people with underlying health conditions may be at increased risk for severe disease. According to medical experts, many of those who have died in the coronavirus outbreak had pre-existing conditions that weakened their ability to fight it. Travelers with an immune-suppressed system should talk to their health care providers before traveling.
Mr. Kuriga, the travel adviser in San Diego, said that it’s a good idea to reach out to a travel agent or the travel company you booked a trip with because some companies might be flexible in their cancellation and refund policies. “Not all companies are coming up with broad policies,” he said. “Some companies are dealing with it on a case-by-case basis.
” The simplest precaution is to purchase medical travel insurance, in particular, a primary-coverage plan that substitutes for your existing United States health insurance while you’re abroad. Look for hefty emergency medical coverage (at least $50,000, according to most experts) and emergency medical transportation coverage (upward of $100,000, depending on how remote your destination is). Deductibles, waivers for pre-existing conditions, and pricing vary by a number of factors; you can comparison-shop on TravelInsurance. com, Squaremouth, and a host of other sites.
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