duke2013

Currently living in Seoul, I'm just taking general precautions but the Korean government has done a terrible job of handling this situation.

http://www.reddit.com/r/korea/commen...sts_emergency/

Aventine

These are the MERS hotzone hospitals in Korea. Meaning hospitals where MERS patients are under quarantine or have passed on at.

sitrus

I'm kinda confused as to how serious (in terms of spreading risk) this actually is. After reading all those articles I'm wondering what they actually mean by contact in regards to contracting the disease. I'm travelling to Seoul in a few weeks to see my family (who has mentioned nothing about MERS) and when going to CX homepage I find a "smart tip" for changing flights when travelling to/from Korea.

I obviously don't want to get sick and possibly die/infect a lot of other people when I get home, but at the same time I don't want to cancel the trip if the risk of contracting it actually is as low as it seems to me right now.

Aventine

To be honest, it's spread by some people's selfishness and stupidity. They were in contact with the deceased, diseased but won't accept the quarantine and go out living their lives. Might be better to come a few months later when the situation has stabilized? If there's not a pressing need to be in South Korea, I wouldn't come here either.

NOTE: the Pyeongtaek Sungmo hospital is where Patient Zero, entered and died and transmitted MERS to other carriers. A lot of schools in Pyeongtaek are closed and the ROK/US airforce base has a few hundred soldiers in quarantine because one Master SGT went to that hospital and got MERS.

Jay71

Preamble: The following are our just plans and understanding based on what we've read and researched so far. Please do your own research too as we may have read things incorrectly or things may have changed and make a decision based on your comfort level.

We're slated to travel to Seoul in about two weeks. While we're not changing our plans yet, we're definitely trying to keep an eye on the situation. We're not seeing any travel advisories for South Korea issued by our foreign affairs department. The latest update from the World Health Organization is not advising special screening at points of entry nor travel restrictions. The Center for Disease Control is not recommending any changes to travel plans to South Korea.

From what we've read, easy human to human transmission has been somewhat limited. While it has spread from person to person, it seems primarily in hospital environments and in households where there is closer contact. In hospitals, if they do not take special precaution, their treatment may cause the virus to become airborne when in normal circumstances it's not easily coughed out. Unfortunately, it appears the hospitals in South Korea were initially lax in their procedures, hence the outbreak.

We're not too concerned about getting infected. Our bigger concern is that even though there are no recommended travel restrictions, Japan might impose their own restrictions and quarantine procedures that might impact us traveling from South Korea to Japan or attending a mass gathering where an infected person also attended and being asked to quarantine.

Aventine

The upside if you do choose to come: less crowds. Myeongdong and Seoul Grand Park have been noticeably less crowded these past few days. Reckon people are staying away from crowds and public spaces to avoid infection.

JDSR2012

Just make sure to buy disposable masks, don't drink camel's milk, and don't eat its meat

Aventine

And isolate camels that weren't born in the Middle East!

FT-hss

Hmmm... My family is traveling in July second week. Wondering if I should skip Seoul and continue to Bali which was our second stop. Still have to transit Seoul both ways. Need to decide quick...

percysmith

HK to issue red travel alert (second highest alert) in respect of South Korea shortly http://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/h...t-travel-south

http://www.sb.gov.hk/eng/ota/

CX will probably release special ticketing guidelines shortly:
http://www.cathaypacific.com/cx/en_H...dvisories.html
http://www.cathaypacific.com/cx/en_H...dvisories.html

Aventine

I'd skip Seoul. This is going to get worse before it gets better.

percysmith

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/catha...l#post24940980

mikesaidyes

Well if it gets worse, I might never return to work! My school is right next to Seoul Asan. My friends are even scared to go to baseball games in the area. It's ridiculous. I say as long as you stay away from hospitals and don't get fresh with too many strangers, you'll be fine. It's not worth canceling travel plans over. That's pure media hype.

Aside from that, the government did drop the ball, sure, but it's not like anything is in chaos. People are still living normally. It's hard not to with this many people.

Antonio8069

The experience with swine flu & SARS suggests that airlines will waive change fees and permit cancellations for travel to Korea:

http://travelinsurancefile.com/headl...remember-sars/

yusiye

SK gov says it's under control. Well, Korea's summer travel season will take a big hit from this ordeal.