yosithezet

I live in Singapore and am curious as to what undemocratic measures were taken in Singapore.

Beyond that, I'm exhausted trying to explain to people the danger and the difference in risk between the flu and COVID19. When this first started to spread in HKG and China there was an FT member who was debating going to Mainland China as he was bored in HKG with thing cancelled and whatnot. Many people spent a lot of energy trying to get him to understand the situation. I don't recall what happened with that. For the next 6 weeks or so many of us spent time amplifying the message that the medical/biological experts in the threads like trueblu have been sharing and trying to make it clear to people just how dangerous this is. Thanks to the information in these threads I was able to convince my aunt a month ago to cancel her trip which would have found her this week in Israel and on her way to Italy and Spain and the like. By all means go read the first few hundred posts in Coronavirus / COVID-19 : general fact-based reporting and see that everything you are going through in Europe and the US is just a repeat of what we went through in late Jan and early Feb.

Reading the comments in this thread trying to frame this as "just a flu" and "fake news" and "not as bad as other things happening" literally give me a pit in my stomach and make me want to cry. What Europe and the US are facing is going to be quite severe. SXSW wasn't cancelled because people wanted to scare people to vote for the Democrats. The universities aren't cancelling face to face classes because they are bastions of liberal politics. People are not lying about the lack of availability of testing kits. In Asia we have been through the stages of disbelief and wonderment that is now being seen in the US and Europe. People can learn fro those who have been going through this beforehand or continue to squander the lead time that they have had to prepare and learn. The chances that you will know someone who has lost a loved one rises with each day that people continue to deny and not take action. But by all means, book your RTW ticket and then come back and tell us the story of your quarantine or hospitalisation in HEL or EZE or CAI.

BlueThroughCrimp

We rescheduled our long planned (a year in advance) family holiday from Singapore and Hong Kong, which were then the main hotspots 3 weeks before departure, to Canada which had very few cases.
No cancellation charges with BA or the hotels.

Just back, and had a great time!

the810

I will probably visit destinations (other EU states) with similar number of cases as my home location. The chances of getting infected are pretty much the same, so I might as well enjoy myself. One of trips has been planned for months, the other is a new idea of recent days.

I would cancel travel to locations with an outbreak (Italy, South Korea, China), if I had them planned.

gurka

Canceled all work travel until end of April - huge conference in Vegas has been canceled we participate in (brings in around 10,000) people from all over the world.
New hires all have to do orientation remotely.
Basically we won't allow travel for work at all until at least end of April.

For personal travel, only going domestic within Canada for now - just 1 small trip and back.

cockpitvisit

Isn't Singapore using its surveillance capabilities to determine and isolate the exact contacts of an infected person?

This is what I meant under "undemocratic measures". Countries that practice tight control over the society have the infrastructure to precisely track each individual, and laws allowing them to isolate any person, and this is a huge asset when controlling the spread of an epidemic (even though I do not like such an excessive state control in "peaceful times").

I was not meaning to be negative on Singapore in this aspect - in fact I wish our government were as competent as yours when fighting this epidemic.

GUWonder

If you go shopping at big grocery stores and pharmacies in HEL, don’t let it be for hand-sanitizer gels. They seem to be sold out almost as much as comparable stores in the “biggest” Swedish cities.

Iran has a history of having one of the better health care systems in the Muslim-majority countries and is far from being fully democratic and has a very penetrative security state apparatus; and yet it failed on its face on this issue and very quickly became one of the first countries to become blacklisted far and wide to try to slow down the spread internationally. Where I go in Europe the most, Italy and Iran have been the main source so far for tracked down cases. More than even China.

mafan812

I have reduced my travel as I don't want to get stuck at my destination. I'm headed to HI this week for a few days; I deem it a low risk trip. I am not doing any work travel, both due to company restrictions and personal choice. For all other trips, I will take a wait and see approach.
Yes, the media is hyping the situation, some outlets more than other. That's what they do to sell ad revenue. It's not helpful.
However, that doesn't detract from the seriousness of Covid-19 vs. seasonal flu. Covid-19 is much more deadly, especially to certain demographics. It also has an incubation period without symptoms where the carrier is contagious. And, someone can carry the virus, be contagious, and never show any symptoms at all. I hope people will follow WHO/CDC prescribed steps for avoiding infection, even if they feel that Covid-19 isn't that bad.

username

Taiwan is also doing some stuff that will never fly in the US with very few people objecting.

For example, the are sending data from the Immigration system to the Health Care system. So, the Health Care system will pop up a warning if you have travelled overseas (not sure if it is country specific) in the last xx days. (They have national health care where everyone insured has a card that is used for doctors, hospitals and now even for face mask rationing.) Not only they are doing it, they made all the system changes in the matter of days!

The government is also using CCTV and phone records to track down people's movement for those confirmed cases.

Taiwan is a lot more democratic than Singapore, there are questions raised but most people are not objecting. The common enemy right now is Covid-19. People understand that and want to focus on that. Sometimes we have to give up our "freedom" and ideology to get things done.

Taiwan has not been this unified for a long long time. Wouldn't it be nice if the US can somehow become more unified right now to fight this?

Boggie Dog

How long should travel be delayed? That's the question I'm facing. Want to attend an event in Florida the 1st of May so would need to travel the last week of April, by air most likely. Do I go ahead and book or will things likely be worse in a month or so? Of course the other question will the event even be held?

MSPeconomist

You could make refundable hotel reservations now and even book flights on airlines that offer no cost cancellation in a form you can use.

Depending on the nature of the event, you might decide to go but to drive rather than fly, I assume two days in each direction from the Dallas area to someplace in Florida.

However, talking heads are suggesting that COVID-19 will hit Florida especially hard due to its elderly population.

36902BRF

Nobody right now can predict six weeks out nobody. The situation changes daily. Look at how much has changed in Italy in the last two weeks. By late April this could be a lot better, the same or a lot worse. My advice is to either book refundable fares/rooms or monitor prices and continue to delay making a decision as long as you can. I really doubt that flights or hotel rooms are going to get more expensive in the near term so I am not sure there is much to be gained locking in things now.

SightseeMC

I had to travel to the US from Seoul for work (I work for myself), and took basic precautions (relative isolation prior to leaving, masks, hand washing, temp checks). ICN was a ghost town, with temp checks for departing passengers. LAX TBIT was also pretty sparse, but no questionnaires and no temp checks or screenings (Mar 2).

I will return to Korea in a week and am debating self-quarantining there. I feel at slightly higher risk here than Seoul, where the outbreak was pretty well contained before I left (~100 cases for 10MM+ in Seoul proper), given lack of testing and protocols. But I have little choice but return, as I must to retain my residency.

Boggie Dog

Thanks. Just made that drive returning a week ago. It's a hard two day drive, one night stay, from here so in most cases flying is more desirable. The event is a play our granddaughter in so going isn't life or death but would be nice to attend. Guess it could be life or death for her grandparents since we both are in the higher risk group.

Was planning on using miles for this trip but cash might be the better value. Not making a decision just yet, think there is time to see how things shape up. Appreciate your advice.

allset2travel

I cancelled all flights to China, Hong Kong and Europe. I pushed out flights to India, Malaysia, Japan and Middle East until second half.

cockpitvisit

Good for you that people understand that.

Here in Germany, lots of people are still in denial and are much more concerned about the curbing of liberties than about fighting the epidemic. These are pretty much the same people who would earlier go out of their way to save a couple of thousand refugees from drowning in the Med. But now that every extra infection sets up an avalanche of follow-on infections with multiple deaths at the end, they suddenly don't seem to care