Bob Saccamano

Turkey just announced a weekend lockdown and also a weeknight curfew due to increasing numbers. Makes it less attractive to visit /spend the winter..

Boraxo

Only if you plan to be out drinking and partying. And experience shows that most of these curfews do not last for long, with a few exceptions (Argentina, etc.)

nomiiiii

Almost all pacific island nations fully shut down no flights in or out except the very rare repatriation flights with 14-20 day quarantines on each end,
north korea will kill you if you get covid so literal elimination,
a few smaller african nations with borders still closed,
mongolia too I believe, its hard to get info out of central asia but in general they're closed also

tlott

Have been in Turkey for a couple months. The increased measures are not too much different than what the situation has been... a gradual locking down for last 6 weeks. Restaurants already closed except for takeaway but everything else normal outside of the curfew hours. Unfortunate to not be able to roam the streets on weekends, but if you have work to do and a flexible schedule it's not so bad. The existing evening curfew on weekends actually excluded foreign tourists, but unsure if that exception will continue (and that rubs me the wrong way, so abiding by curfew...).

If you like to shop in the fancy malls, it seems a HES code will be required for entry which can be obtained with the Hayat Eve Sığar app or by SMSing some number. (both only work with Turkish SIM, fyi).

In general I have been very impressed with hygiene and mask usage. Nearly 100% mask usage everywhere outside home (including outdoors). Foot operated hand sanitizers in virtually every shop/cafe/takeaway place. There is no excuse for not having clean hands here. Also to date there has been good contact tracing (I understand this is weakening now with bigger numbers) and imposed isolation of family/contacts of known patients - I have encountered a couple people who were subject to 14 day isolation recently. They are doing what they can, and overall seems OK. Better than the joke of my home country, anyway.

tlott

kyrgyzstan is open for many nationalities including UK. uzbek is also open to most (may require some isolation, but unsure)

the810

And yet their cases skyrocket, almost if those meassures didn't make too much difference.

I understand people who choose places with low infection rate and I understand people who choose places with few restrictions. And of course, the combination of both would be the best. But why would someone pick a place with many restrictions and a large infection rate?

GUWonder

People have been choosing to go from the US to Taiwan and Vietnam because life is more like normal in those Asian countries than it is in the US no matter where in the US you go.

tlott

I arrived when there were no restrictions and low infection rates, but have remained as the situation has gone downhill.

Turkey only reported hospitalized patients, not positive test results, until the other day, so the chart looks crazy. With the Turkish contact tracing app, it has been possible to watch the heat map of infections (I believe populated by the historical location history of covid19 positives who also have the app on their phones) change for the worse over the last couple months... at first it was in the high density working class neighborhoods of istanbul (for instance) - bright red on the heat map - while the rest of the city had almost no infections. Now the entire city is blanketed in red.

Spread in the wealthier parts of Istanbul must be driven mostly in households and offices... in the neighborhood I've been living it is quite difficult get in close proximity to anyone for more than a minute or two - and when that happens we are both masked (and even that is rare... almost always possible to keep distance). Trams and busses can be too busy for my comfort, but the metro is very low density outside of peak hours. A lot depends on your personal habits I suppose. Given the overall situation, and alternatives, I am happy to get some work done, enjoy food I love, walks along the bosphorus, relatively good weather (has been mostly 15-20 C and sunny for last couple weeks). Short of fully isolating or going to the southern hemisphere, can't imagine the risk of infection here (for me) could be much lower... but again depends on your activities.

bensyd

True

I don't blame them after last year's debacle.

TTT

I have a couple friends who went to Taiwan for this reason (are dual citizens). Aside from the strict quarantine on arrival, life in Taiwan is basically normal for them. And they intend to wait it out as long as they can.

TravelingZoomer

Taiwan recently had a huge, crowded, musical festival because of their ability (and the people�s willingness) to curve the spread.

I have a visa to finish my research in Taipei after being forced to repatriate back in the spring, although I could conceivably do it remotely. I�m highly considering it, just weighing the options of leaving my family behind again

PointsPanda

In terms of lack of restrictions I don't think any place is as lax as Brazil right now (with the exception of masks, they are strict). I've traveled around Mexico too, the cities are super strict and a lot of stuff shutdown a 2nd time the last few weeks, but the beach areas are not following suit. And of course if you can get in the southern USA states aren't too burdensome with restrictions.

GUWonder

Bloomberg has put out a list of best places to be during this pandemic, and it has ranked the countries that have a GDP of $200 billion or more with something it calls a "Covid resilience ranking score".

The top ten places to be (in ranked order): New Zealand, Japan, Taiwan, South Korea, Finland, Norway, Australia, China, Denmark, Vietnam.

https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/c...ience-ranking/

I've known my fair share of people who have moved from the US to other countries for a variety of reasons related to Covid-19 during this year: to have a place where an immune-system-compromised relative may be safer or have better or more affordable healthcare; to be where schools are open for their school-aged-relatives; to be closer to relatives who need support in other ways; to be where they can make a living more easily; to be where they can in other ways too have a semblance of a more normal life.

Putting up with the hassles of relocating -- even with a mandatory quarantine on arrival -- has apparently been well worth it to some and still is in recent weeks. Of course we also see intra-country relocating going on in a lot of places for much the same reasons as international relocations.

LondonElite

Most certainly not. Depending on your citizenship or residency, there are plenty of places you won�t be admitted to, or would have to face quarantine. And flight schedules will continue to be disrupted.

GUWonder

For those who are vaccinated, I am assuming it will be possible in a way then that is not the case this winter.