Coronavirus Virus – As of March 5, 2020

First of all, thank you to everyone who has reached out to check on us as the coronavirus situation has evolved. So to answer your concerns, we are well aware of the rapidly expanding epidemic and the potential risks. Thankfully, we have been safely tucked away in Australia and New Zealand for the past 10 weeks and had never planned to go to China, South Korea, Italy or Iran. The limited number of cases in Australia have mostly originated from the Diamond Princess cruise ship and none had emerged in the cities where we have been in the past 4 weeks. And we have been blessed with good overall health so that should our paths cross with the virus, hopefully we have immune systems that can handle it.

Our real concerns are the potential impacts on our future travel plans. We are closely following credible websites to keep abreast of various countries’ entry restrictions. Before we left, we took our own advice as described in our Travel Tips blog and signed up with the U.S. Department of State’s STEP program. As mentioned, registering notifies the government of your destinations abroad. Should there be an emergency like earthquake, civil unrest or even a pandemic, the State Department will issue warning notices by email. We have gotten a few notices a week advising the status of various countries’ precautions regarding coronavirus.

This is what we know at the moment. Our next destination is Singapore, where we arrive on March 6. There are no bans for travelers from Australia. We’ve been in touch with our son Mark’s friend Simon in Singapore who tells us that the city is operating pretty much as usual, although he gets his temperature scanned daily as he enters his office building. Our next stop is Thailand on March 12, which is the first day of our 25-day Gate1 tour of southeast Asia. Thailand has no current restrictions for people coming from Singapore. The tour takes us to Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam, who also have no current restrictions that would affect us. Gate1 is offering cancelation options, but we still want to go. Assuming no changes and we can complete the tour, that takes us to April 14, when we head to Egypt.

This is where it gets potentially problematic. Currently, Egypt is saying that anyone who has been in Singapore, Thailand or Vietnam (plus others) must fill out a health card upon arrival and will be monitored by the General Quarantine Administration for 14 days. It is unclear what that actually means and we plan to contact our embassy in Egypt for clarification. If we clear Egypt, we should be good for Jordan. That’s as far as we have actually committed so far. Our intention was to go to Israel after Jordan. Presently, Israel will not allow travelers in if they have been to a number of countries, including Thailand or Singapore in the previous 14 days, but we should be in the clear based on that timing. We do not plan to commit beyond Jordan until we are reasonably certain that the destinations are safe and that we can gain entry. Further, we want to make sure the actual attractions we want to see will be open. We fully understand why authorities are limiting events with large crowds. The real impact is on the hospitality industry, which has seen tourism plummet. In Cairns, we were told that one hotel that normally has a 80% to 90% occupancy rate is currently at 6%, and this is without a single case of the virus. 

In the meantime, we are taking precautions that are available to us – hand washing, staying away from sick people, not touching our eyes, etc. We are using hand sanitizer, but our stock was running low and it is next to impossible to find any on the shelves at grocery stores or the local chemist (pharmacy). At the 7^th stop, Steve winked at the store clerk and showed a little bit of leg and she climbed up a ladder and retrieved a couple of bottles from a secret stash. It pays to be cute.

On a related note, we figured the stock market would take a bit of a dive soon after we retired. Who could have predicted that it would be coupled with a potential worldwide pandemic as well? We will keep this post at the top of the blog and update it as needed.