International travel and Covid 19

[Quagmire1974]

Does anyone know any travel insurance companies that will cover me as a UK citizen travelling to Brazil if I live in a tier 3 area?

Thanks.

I found this:

https://www.lonelyplanet.com/travel-insurance

I believe that Lonely Planet is a United Kingdom-based company, so they're probably pushing something that applies to residents of the United Kingdom like you.

I also found this from Conde Nast:

https://www.cntraveller.com/article/travel-insurance-uk

[SoberHans69]

Does anyone know any travel insurance companies that will cover me as a UK citizen travelling to Brazil if I live in a tier 3 area?

Thanks.

[Quagmire1974]

Mostly about the logistics of administering a 2 dose vaccine, plus follow up. And I suppose the card will end up being used as proof of vaccination, although it doesn't look like that is the purpose for it. I'm assuming every country using these vaccines will have to do something similar.

It looks like the "COVID-19 Vaccination Record Card" will also exist on a mobile app called CommonPass. Major airlines are already on board (no pun intended):

https://www.lonelyplanet.com/article...al-health-pass

However, it also appears that the International Air Transport Association is creating a digital health pass named Travel Pass, which might be similar to CommonPass:

https://www.lonelyplanet.com/articles/qantas-vaccine

Bottom line, in my humble opinion, I don't see the "COVID-19 Vaccination Record Card" being accepted internationally for entry into foreign nations since they can probably be forged and not everyone reads English. I could be wrong, it's happened before.

[Zeos1]

There has been plenty of speculation about this. Here is how it will be handled in the United States: https://www.aol.com/lifestyle/heres-...174759426.html.

Mostly about the logistics of administering a 2 dose vaccine, plus follow up. And I suppose the card will end up being used as proof of vaccination, although it doesn't look like that is the purpose for it. I'm assuming every country using these vaccines will have to do something similar.

[The Cane]

There has been plenty of speculation about this. Here is how it will be handled in the United States: https://www.aol.com/lifestyle/heres-...174759426.html.

[FiddyCent]

I thought you might like to know: https://www.businessinsider.com/coun...ovid-19-2020-9.

So, it is decided! Brazil it is! No testing requirements is a definite plus. Happy Thanksgiving TC.

FiddyCent.

[The Cane]

I thought you might like to know: https://www.businessinsider.com/coun...ovid-19-2020-9.

[Artisttyp]

And so it begins. Anybody who thought they were going to be able to return to wide international travel without taking a COVID shot is sadly mistaken. This is just an early salvo. Other carriers are going to follow suit, and governments too. So, if you're an international traveler who is anti-vaccine, or if you have concerns about these vaccines that have been rushed to market, you definitely have something to think about here.

https://apple.news/Arp3QKZRCTUCys4d77e9s9w

Obviously.

There is no way you or anyone else is doing anything going forward without a vaccine.

You don't have to take it if you don't want to but just like you say NOTHING will be accessible without it.

https://nypost.com/2020/11/23/chaos-erupts-at-shanghai-airport-after-mass-covid-19-testing-ordered/

[The Cane]

And so it begins. Anybody who thought they were going to be able to return to wide international travel without taking a COVID shot is sadly mistaken. This is just an early salvo. Other carriers are going to follow suit, and governments too. So, if you're an international traveler who is anti-vaccine, or if you have concerns about these vaccines that have been rushed to market, you definitely have something to think about here.

https://apple.news/Arp3QKZRCTUCys4d77e9s9w

[Artisttyp]

Health.

Even more evidence shows the coronavirus spreads easily on long plane flights.

insider@insider.com (Susie Neilson).

Business InsiderSat, September 19,2020, 4:12 AM PDT.

<p class="copyright" United Airlines</ p .

United Airlines.

A CDC study offers even more evidence that the coronavirus spreads on airplanes.

Epidemiologists traced 16 coronavirus cases back to a single 10-hour flight where one symptomatic passenger was seated in business class.

The case study showed that 92% of passengers sitting two seats or fewer away from the passenger contracted the coronavirus.

It's unlikely most of the passengers on the flight were wearing masks.

Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

On March 1, 217 people boarded a plane in London, England, bound for Hanoi, Vietnam.

Healthcare workers had already examined each passenger, asking them to report any potential COVID-19 symptoms and doing temperature scans.

But a 27-year-old businesswoman didn't report that she had a sore throat and a cough. And her temperature scan was normal.

However, the woman's symptoms progressed over the following days; she tested positive for COVID-19 on March 6.

Subsequent contact tracing revealed that on that 10-hour flight alone, the woman had passed the virus to 15 other passengers.

The case study, described in a new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, offers even stronger evidence that the coronavirus can spread on planes – particularly when passengers aren't wearing masks. In early March, face masks weren't yet mandatory on flights, so it's likely most passengers weren't wearing them.

92% of passengers within 2 seats of the infected woman got sick.

Upon learning of the businesswoman's infection, researchers at Vietnam's National Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology contact traced the people on the flight — passengers and crew members. Local health staff interviewed everyone they could reach (184 people), and told anyone with a suspected COVID-19 case to self-quarantine, along with their close contacts.

The 15 cases health workers identified were all considered "flight-associated," meaning they could be reliably traced back to the flight and not another event. None of the other infected passengers had displayed COVID-19 symptoms before or during the flight. And nobody had been around anyone else with a confirmed case of coronavirus except the businesswoman, who'd traveled to Italy with her sister (who later tested positive in London).

Twelve of the infected passengers were in business class, and all but one of those were sitting two or fewer seats away from the woman – 92% of all the passengers sitting that close got sick. The virus also spread to two passengers in economy class and one crew member.

A diagram showing the seating locations of passengers on Vietnam Airlines flight 54 from London to Hanoi on March 2, 2020. <p class="copyright" Nguyen et al / CDC</ p .

A diagram showing the seating locations of passengers on Vietnam Airlines flight 54 from London to Hanoi on March 2, 2020.

Nguyen et al / CDC.

The researchers concluded that the woman most likely spread the coronavirus to other business-class passengers and the crew member via infected droplets or aerosols (tiny particles that get expelled from the mouth when someone breathes, talks, or yells).

The two economy-class passengers could have been infected in the airport during customs or at baggage claim, by touching a contaminated surface or standing near the woman for an extended period of time.

Although the researchers said they couldn't completely rule out the possibility that the passengers got infected in other ways, they noted that on March 1, the UK had only 23 recorded COVID-19 cases. Likewise, at the time the passengers arrived in Vietnam, the country had only recorded 16 cases – making it unlikely they'd contracted the disease after they left the airport.

Plus, most of the cases were clustered together in business class – which would be unlikely if they'd come from different sources.

Airlines may need stricter rules to stop the coronavirus' spread.

Based on their findings, the researchers think airlines might be downplaying the risks of coronavirus transmission on flights.

Passengers wear masks on a plane at Geneva Airport, March 1, 2020. <p class="copyright" Valery Sharifulin\TASS via Getty Images</ p .

Passengers wear masks on a plane at Geneva Airport, March 1, 2020.

Valery Sharifulin\TASS via Getty Images.

"The latest guidance from the international air-travel industry classifies the in-flight transmission risk as very low, and recommends only the use of face masks without additional measures to increase physical distance on board, such as blocking the middle seats," the authors wrote. "Our findings challenge these recommendations. ".

However, MIT researchers calculated in a July paper that filling middle seats could double the risk of COVID-19 transmission on a plane flight. (That study has not yet been peer-reviewed, however.).

The epidemiologists behind the new CDC study said even blocking off middle seats can't fully prevent super-spreader events on planes, though, given that the sick passenger on the flight studied spread the virus to those two seats away. Plus, those people were in business class, where seats are larger and more spread out than in economy.

So the researchers suggested that airlines and government officials = implement stricter screening policies for travelers, test everyone who gets off a flight, and make all newly arrived passengers quarantine for 14 days.

Currently, every major US airline requires passengers to wear masks for their entire flight, except while eating or drinking. But not all passengers cooperate, and getting everyone to wear masks for the entirety of a long flight, like the 10-hour one from London to Hanoi, can be even more difficult.

[Quagmire1974]

Mexico's "COVID Stoplight" map updated. More States improve to the "Yellow stoplight":

https://mexiconewsdaily.com/news/cor...states-yellow/

Mexico Deputy Health Minister predicts vast majority of States in Mexico will improve to "Green stoplight" in October:

https://mexiconewsdaily.com/news/cor...en-by-october/

Russia to provide Mexico with 32 million doses of the "Sputnik-5" vaccine in November:

https://mexiconewsdaily.com/news/cor...e-in-november/

Hang in there, guys, we're going to make it to 2021!

[The Cane]

Outstanding info on travel to the UAE at this time:

https://apple.news/AzEBn2iMcTsGHJSbVZB0mfg

[Quagmire1974]

An excellent article from USA Today detailing the distribution and administration of the COVID vaccines in the United States once they're approved:

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/...al/5712053002/

IMHO, the vaccination card discussed in the article is going to be critical, as I believe that card will ultimately be the proof you need to get on airplanes to fly domestically and internationally. Hopefully, with that vaccination card in hand, you won't have to get a COVID test and show your negative COVID test result when you land in a foreign country.

[Zeos1]

I don't see how this minimizes "epidemiological risk". I mean, how do they know whether or not say maybe somebody from New York traveled down to the hot zone of Florida, came back to New York, then caught a plane down to Costa Rica? I mean this is just stupid. They should either be letting all Americans in, or don't let any Americans in. Or if you do, then require a quarantine upon arrival if coming from anywhere in the continental United States. This strikes me as just some dumb "banana republic" public health management that exposes Costa Rica to unnecessary risk versus minimizing the risk. To go by State in a country where people are moving around all over the place all of the time makes zero sense.

With the other countries they approved earlier they had the rule that you have to have been in the country where the flight originates for at least 2 weeks. But, at least so far, they have not made that rule for the US flights (on a state basis). Perhaps that is still to come.

[The Cane]

Quoting from today's Tico Times, saying that sometime in September the following.

"USA Tourists will only be welcomed if they are residents of the following states: New York, New Jersey, New Hampshire, Maine, Vermont and Connecticut. Passengers must prove their residency in one of those states using their driver's license.

"We have included the license-plate requirement to minimize the likelihood that someone from a non-authorized state be allowed to enter," Segura said. "We are minimizing our epidemiological risk. ".

Tourists must obtain a negative PCR-RT test within 48 hours of their flight and purchase a travel-insurance plan that covers COVID-19. (This can be a pre-approved Costa Rican plan, or a foreign one that meets a series of requirements.).

In addition, all arriving passengers must complete an online health form. ".

End quote.

By "license-plate requirement" I think they mean driver's license.

These are the same requirements as for country / residents currently allowed.

I don't see how this minimizes "epidemiological risk". I mean, how do they know whether or not say maybe somebody from New York traveled down to the hot zone of Florida, came back to New York, then caught a plane down to Costa Rica? I mean this is just stupid. They should either be letting all Americans in, or don't let any Americans in. Or if you do, then require a quarantine upon arrival if coming from anywhere in the continental United States. This strikes me as just some dumb "banana republic" public health management that exposes Costa Rica to unnecessary risk versus minimizing the risk. To go by State in a country where people are moving around all over the place all of the time makes zero sense.