Is it safe to travel at the moment - coronavirus?

amother

Tue, Jan 28 2020, 12:13 am

Hi, I was planning on traveling to Europe to visit family in the next couple of weeks with my kids aged 18 months and 5.
Is it safe to travel? or is it best avoided because of all the germs that we could pick up when flying?
Thoughts, please? Please respond asap, because I want to book tomorrow morning if I decide we are flying! Thanks!

amother

Pearl

Tue, Feb 25 2020, 9:44 pm

agree with etky
I would not want to get stuck in a quarantine or the like...even if its unlikely it would really depend upon how important the trip is at this time. I would tend to not do an optional trip with kids at this time.

And the situation seems rapidly evolving and developing I would not want to book tickets only to find that some weeks down the road it is ill advised to travel Sad

interesting times

amother

Royalblue

Thu, Feb 27 2020, 6:13 pm

amother [ Sapphire ] wrote:

CDC official warns Americans it's not a question of if coronavirus will spread, but when.

https://www.cnn.com/2020/02/25......html

I'm pregnant and was thinking of going to Israel next week but am now concerned about coronavirus in the Middle East. Is it a real concern? Would it be unsafe to travel?

WhatFor

Thu, Feb 27 2020, 6:48 pm

amother [ Royalblue ] wrote:

I'm pregnant and was thinking of going to Israel next week but am now concerned about coronavirus in the Middle East. Is it a real concern? Would it be unsafe to travel?

The Israeli health minister advised Israelis not to travel abroad. https://www.timesofisrael.com/.....ears/

Meanwhile, the US is potentially heading towards a new crisis. The California governor just announced that they only have a few hundred tests for coronavirus (Hong Kong is testing over a thousand daily, for reference). And they've discovered the CDC tests are flawed... I just read NY is making its own tests because the CDC ones aren't reliable.

We have no idea what's going to happen, who's going to be quarantined (or if they'll just give up on that). But if you're traveling anywhere right now, consider that you might be quarantined and if you're okay with that before returning.

Good luck everyone.

etky

Fri, Feb 28 2020, 2:32 am

amother [ Royalblue ] wrote:

I'm pregnant and was thinking of going to Israel next week but am now concerned about coronavirus in the Middle East. Is it a real concern? Would it be unsafe to travel?

Personally I would not come right now if there were no compelling reason.
I wrote my previous post exactly a month ago, urging OP to wait to see how things would develop.
Well b"h the first case was only diagnosed yesterday (although we've had many scares until now).
At the moment it's impossible to know the implications of the fact that someone has had the virus for four days without knowing it and thus went about his business as usual.
His son also attended school during this time and now they are waiting to see if he also has the virus which would be bad news.
As I've written in other threads, the issues are that Israel is a small, crowded country with a highly interconnected society and an already extremely stretched hospital system.
There is also an election next week with all that that implies in terms of possibility of contagion.
There are also several thousand people in home quarantine who might be coming out to vote albeit in separate balloting areas.
Given all this uncertainty, it's not the greatest week to come IMO.
Also you asked about the Middle East - does that mean you are flying with a connection through someplace like Istanbul or Athens? If so I definitely recommend only a direct flight. Corona is spreading rapidly throughout the Middle East and Europe . You don't want to be in an airport where many people from other countries where Corona is already rampant are transiting through.

amother

Royalblue

Fri, Feb 28 2020, 9:09 am

amother [ Ecru ] wrote:

Wear a mask sit by window seat by refundable tickets

Thanks everyone for your responses. It seems like Israel is not an option for now.
Would you say there's any concern domestically? Can just being in a concentrated low pressure place with so many people, be an issue too?