D2’s roommate is house sitting/dog sitting for a family that went to Hawaii and one of them has tested positive for Covid while there. D2’s roommate went and got tested yesterday since she picked up the keys (a week ago) from the person that tested positive and the roommate is negative. D2 has not seen her roommate since before she picked up the keys so D2 is good.
My boss told me this morning that her and her H canceled their trip to Hawaii next week because of the uptick in Covid cases. She said it just doesn’t sound fun to travel right now.
Yes, seems like a bad idea to travel amid covid spike. We are having bad covid spike due to delta. We have few to no icu beds. My sister’s 96 year old MIL spent 30 hours in ICU with her stroke, waiting for a room. She finally got one only to be promptly discharged to my sister’s home so they could use her bed.
We are importing 550 nurses and are really maxing out here. If you do travel here, mask up and follow our rules and don’t fight them. Our rules are EVERYONE MASKS INDOORS. It doesn’t matter how much you paid to travel—don’t yell at our people and make them cry. Follow the rules or please stay home.
We can’t have more sick people. Our hospitals are stretched too thin already.
If we were to travel to Hawaii in the near future (no actual plans yet), I would get tested even though I’m fully vaccinated. Even if this is no longer required.
We just spent a week in the Redneck Riviera (arrogance of that article is telling). Ate most meals in our condo. Dined in a 4 restaurants for dinner during our stay. Went into a few stores as well. Rest of the time was spent outside or in our condo. None of the places we visited were packed. Several restaurants/stores were closing early/certain days and had limited capacity because of staffing issues. Local kids are back in school already. Never went to any bars though drove past one on Florida/Alabama border the night before we left and it looked to be totally packed.
As we have seen over the past 18 months or so, different people have different comfort levels. I know people who have been dining in at restaurants for well over a year at this point. And others who have pretty much not left their house in 18 months. And everywhere in between.
We could have been more conservative than we were. Ate every breakfast/lunch in the condo and a couple dinners. We could have eaten all meals in our condo. Could have skipped all stores. Either bring all food with us (we brought a lot of it but still went to the grocery store) or just go once to grocery store. Some restaurants had patio dining. Most of our time was spent on the beach and you could distance yourself as much as you wanted. Some activities got me thinking a little about what would happen if we were in an accident and needed a hospital (jet skis, horseback riding and even the car ride down there and driving about to a certain extent).
Talked to someone from Dallas in the water our last day (we had to be distanced because we were getting pounded by 6 foot waves – which made wave boards an adventure). They normally came to the beach in September but this year pushed in up about a month.
Two weeks ago, we drove 6 hours to a VRBO home, bringing coolers with all our food. We had a total of 11 family members (8 fully vaccinated, 2 partially vaccinated, 1 unvaccinated and one infant). Happy to report no one got sick.
I cancelled our flight this weekend, which was to an indoor class reunion and gave my regrets to my niece, whose indoor wedding is mid September.
The idea of getting in a plane with delta and other variants circulating just has no appeal—none.
I’m staying in my home and no indoor dining until our hospitals are no longer in crisis mode and I’m 2 weeks past the booster I am waiting my turn to get.
On the flight, people take off masks to eat and/or drink, and maybe leave it off for prolonged periods. Clearly, one can get covid from an infected unmasked person who is shedding high amounts of virus, especially if in the same plane for many hours. I’m often in a plane (pre-covid) for 5+ hours just to get from HI to west Coast.
There are lots of crowds (from people photos) at various points in airports—ticket counter, TSA, gates, trams, baggage claim, car rental, etc. lots of opportunities to contract any infection, especially a highly contagious one like delta.
Also boarding and unboarding. The ventilation system on planes is great but it doesn’t run while the plane is at the gate.
Two of my kids have flown across the country this summer, one before Delta got bad and one more recently (I only saw him for one night and one lunch outside). Neither got sick (or infected, that they know of). The one who flew first wore double mask and face shield. Son wore surgical mask and glasses. I was nervous for them!
Yes, I’ve been nervous whenever a loved ones have flown during these covid times. S flew multiple trips. D has only flown one, one-way. Both kids have so far been fortunate. Both were fully vaxed as soon as they could get a VAX in their arms. Both are pretty careful and mask up and limit their exposure to others and avoid crowds (always have).
My student flies to Grand Rapids on Sunday. The flight we booked arrives at an inconvenient time, and my kid probably won’t get to campus until 10:30 pm. But we picked this flight because it’s the only nonstop and shortens the total travel time considerably versus connecting someplace like ORD. Will fly with either an N95 or KN95. Student is fully vaxxed and will have to get a negative Covid test 72 hours prior to arrival, so here’s hoping for a safe flight.
I’m posting in the travel thread because we have a relative (mid-20s) who returned this week from a 17 day vacation in the EU. I thought he was a little crazy to go, especially when one of his destinations, France, was put on level 4 before his departure. He and his gf were both fully vaccinated and took many masks with them, including N95 ones.
They stayed in Rome, Florence, Venice, Cinque Terre, Nice and Paris. It was very hot in Italy, but they expected it. (The trip was planned before the gf was scheduled to start her new job, so they had no choice to go later in the fall.) They ate outside and did all the regular sightseeing. Showing their US vaccine cards was sufficient to get around. They traveled by train between destinations and stayed in a combination of hotels and Airbnbs.
Since both of them had been to Europe before, I asked if it was a lot different with Covid, aside from mask-wearing and Covid cards. Their response was Italy, in general seemed normal. They attributed the smaller crowds to the combination of hot weather and Covid.
Nice was very crowded. They liked it there a lot…especially the food. Paris was the most different (they have both been there before)…very uncrowded and many places were closed. Some places seemed to be closed for the holidays, while other places looked permanently closed. The Notre Dame area looked the most impacted due to Covid and the construction around the Notre Dame Cathedral. Covid testing was very easy. They said there were testing areas at main attractions. They went to the one by the Eiffel Tower and it was quick and efficient.
Lastly, the biggest issue of the trip occurred on their initial flight. A man refused to wear a mask before take-off, going so far as to lock himself in the bathroom. He was physically removed to cheers. Unfortunately it caused a large enough delay that they just made their connecting flight to Rome…their luggage did not. It was a big inconvenience but they’re young and made the best of it- buying some inexpensive clothes and toiletries. They were glad they had brought some Euros with them since some places didn’t take credit cards.
I travelled to Georgia via air at the beginning of August and returned mid August. I didn’t really encounter issues on the plane. There were a few passengers and staff in the airports not wearing their masks correctly but nothing awful.
I have to fly back to Georgia next month for two weeks, then I’m back home for a week and flying to North Carolina for two weeks after that. My work has had people travelling on and off this entire time since Covid started. There is no vaccine mandate but many including myself are vaccinated.
It’s so hard to judge risk. My son-in-law has flown at least twice a month throughout the past year for work. He has stayed well. He’s vaccinated and wears masks, but only where mandated. It makes me anxious to think about but he’s fine.
On the other hand, my work is planning a retreat that would take 12 hours of flight time (with two stops) for me in December and I really really don’t want to go. I wish it all were clearer in my mind.
As I write we are scheduling a trip to New England and Upstate to see our two kids. While there we wanted to take some time to see a few places we haven’t seen during our many visits … ie play the tourist some.
We’re all fully vaccinated and happy to wear masks and wash hands as we’ve been doing for the last 1.5 years. I’m thinking we’re going to go and just try and play it safe.
News out today that the EU plans to discuss reimposing travel restrictions on the US (likely at least in part due to the US’s failure to reciprocate in admitting vaccinated Europeans to the US):
(The report is from Bloomberg but that’s a paywalled site)
It does seem strange that Americans can travel to the EU and back but we don’t reciprocate. I don’t have a strong opinion about it, but as airlines like United start to require vaccination, it may just be a matter of time for the airline industry to have the personnel infrastructure in place to resume flights. Something that might complicate matters is the ability of airlines to gauge demand, specifically business travel.
In June when things looked decent we were thinking of Italy in Oct. Now we have to pivot. Last year in Oct we did Cabo and felt very safe. At the time the planes were not full. I have flown quite a few times since as well, and have a good mask to wear, so that I am not worried about flying. {Plus I have tons of upgrade certificates. So now the trip we have in mind in Costa Rica. It will not be busy season, and we will be mostly outdoors, except when it rains. looking at the Covid rules, we can get in as vaccinated Americans. I would definitely covid test before leaving.