As the spring break travel season approaches, the continuing spread of coronavirus, including a cluster of cases that emerged in Italy over the weekend, has some travelers questioning whether it’s safer to avoid destinations that previously raised few concerns.
The vast majority of the more than 80,000 cases of COVID-19 confirmed worldwide have been in China, where the virus was first reported. But the outbreak’s reach is spreading, with cases reported in more than 30 countries, including dozens of new cases in Italy.
The head of the World Health Organization said Monday the virus has “pandemic potential” but is not spreading uncontained across the globe “for the moment.”
“Using the word pandemic now does not fit the facts but it may certainly cause fear,” said Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, speaking in Geneva.
Data from travel app Hopper suggests concerns about the virus aren’t keeping travelers home. Searches for flights from the U.S. to international destinations only are down about 3% compared with the first week of January, and most of the decline is driven by reduced demand for trips to China, said Hayley Berg, economist at Hopper.
Few travelers seemed nervous about destinations outside Asia until cases were reported in Italy, said Randy Lynch, CEO of Chicago-based private luxury travel firm Kipling & Clark.
“I think most people are in that semi-pause situation,” he said. “They want to go, they’re just waiting to see what happens.”
Here’s what to consider when planning a trip:
How should travelers decide which destinations to avoid?
The World Health Organization and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have been providing regular updates on the status of cases, and both the CDC and U.S. State Department offer advice on travel to particular destinations.
The CDC has recommended avoiding nonessential travel to mainland China and South Korea and advised older adults and those with chronic medical conditions to consider postponing nonessential travel to Japan, Iran and Italy. The agency issued a lower-level travel notice for Hong Kong but doesn’t currently recommend canceling or delaying trips there.
While there’s reason to be cautious, travelers shouldn’t feel the need to call off a trip today, said Emily Landon, medical director for infection control at the University of Chicago Medical Center. Concerns rise for destinations closer to the center of the outbreak. She advised travelers keep a close eye on updates from health and government officials and decide what level of risk they’re comfortable with, taking into account personal factors like whether the traveler or a family member has health issues or works in an environment such as health care.
“Plan what you want, build in flexibility, and understand what your line is so if something crosses the line of what’s acceptable, you can change,” Landon said.
Is there a reason to worry about cruises?
Any time a lot of people are living in close proximity, it can be easier for illnesses to spread, but that doesn’t mean people should avoid cruises, Landon said. She hopes the industry learns from the Diamond Princess in Japan, where a two-week quarantine failed to keep COVID-19 from spreading to hundreds of passengers earlier this month, and the MS Westerdam in Cambodia, which let passengers disembark only to have one later test positive for the virus.
Travelers who are concerned about the virus but want to take a cruise should ask how the ship will handle a sick passenger, “and if the plan doesn’t make sense, don’t get on,” she said.
About 13% of travel agencies surveyed by Travel Leaders Network earlier this month reported large numbers of cruise cancellations, mostly in China and Asia.
“While we are getting inquiries, we are not seeing many cancellations outside of China and Asia,” said John Lovell, president of leisure travel, supplier relations and networks at Travel Leaders Group.
“Cruise bookings in the Caribbean, Europe and Alaska are solid,” he said. “People are not going to give up their vacations or stop traveling.”
Should travelers wear masks?
Surgical masks are good at keeping someone who’s sick from spreading an illness to others, but they aren’t as good at protecting the wearer, Landon said.
An N95 respirator, which filters out smaller particles, is more effective, if it’s used properly. Landon doesn’t recommend them unless the traveler has been properly fit for the mask and knows how to keep it clean and avoid contamination.
Washing hands regularly, carrying hand sanitizer or sanitizing wipes and avoiding people who are coughing can reduce the risks of picking up an illness, whether COVID-19 or the common flu.
Will insurance cover canceled trips?
Trip cancellation policies cover losses associated with trips canceled for specific reasons, and fear of being exposed to an illness is rarely one of them.
Only a couple of policies at travel insurance website Squaremouth cover cancellations to areas where the CDC has issued a travel alert, said Chief Marketing Officer Megan Moncrief.
Travelers can upgrade to policies that let them cancel a trip for any reason, but premiums can be 40% greater than those on a standard travel insurance package, and they often only cover about 75% of the traveler’s losses. In most cases, the policy has to be purchased at the time of booking or shortly thereafter.
“Usually it’s not a good investment … but there are some situations where it’s the only thing they can buy for what they’re concerned about,” said John Cook, president and CEO of QuoteWright Insurance.
Travel insurance packages often will reimburse people for quarantines, but only if the traveler is quarantined, Moncrief said. It doesn’t apply if the person intended to travel to a destination where a quarantine has been imposed, though some travel delay policies may cover expenses, like alternate accommodations and meals, if travel restrictions interrupt a trip, she said.
Is there any other way to recover costs?
Contact the travel provider to ask about options for postponing a trip or to seek refunds. Local travel agents said some travel companies they work with in Asia are letting travelers postpone trips with no penalty.
Downers Grove-based Abercrombie & Kent is allowing customers who’ve scheduled luxury small group trips to China through April postpone or switch to an alternate trip at no fee, said spokeswoman Jean Fawcett.
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Jon Davis, of Lincoln Park, said he was able to get a credit for a United Airlines flight to Japan, though he’s hoping the airline will agree to a refund. Davis had planned to run the Tokyo Marathon on March 1 but canceled his trip after the race was called off for all but a select group of elite athletes due to concerns about COVID-19.
Felicia Edens’ family was able to get a refund on a hotel room on Boracay, an island in the Philippines, after she and her husband canceled a trip they’d planned to take earlier this month. But Edens, who lives on Chicago’s North Side, said her family wasn’t able to recover the cost of their flight, since the insurance they purchased expired.
Edens and her husband initially planned to travel as scheduled. They didn’t appreciate “the full gravity of the situation” and didn’t didn’t want her mother, who paid for the trip, to lose money, she wrote in an email. But her mother, who departed early, advised them not to go.
“It seemed that there were so many precautionary measures being taken that she didn’t want to put us at risk at all or have to deal with anxiety during the trip,” she said.
Associated Press contributed.
source https://betterweightloss.info/spring-break-is-coming-and-the-coronavirus-is-spreading-heres-what-to-know-before-you-go/
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