From Algiers to New Zealand the seemingly everlasting global pandemic is still causing havoc with travel and tourism. Still, we remain hopeful as the the first Med cruise since the pandemic set sail Sunday. Here’s a quick look at the latest news pertinent to our industry.
New Brunswick
New Brunswick has reported two new cases of COVID-19, bringing the total number of active cases in the province to 15. Public health officials said in a statement Sunday that both cases are in the Moncton region and are related to international travel. One of them is under age 10 and the other is between 10 and 19 years old, the authorities said, and both people are self-isolating.
The new cases come 24 hours after New Brunswick reported four new cases of the virus. Unfortunately, two of those earlier cases – people in their 40s in the Moncton area – were also related to international travel.
Authorities said those two cases may have been infectious while travelling on Air Canada flight AC-891 from Rome to Toronto on Aug. 3 and Air Canada flight AC-8910 from Toronto to Moncton on Aug. 4.
They advised people on those flights to self-monitor for COVID-19 symptoms and seek medical help should any arise.
The other two cases announced Saturday are in the Fredericton area and involve children under the age of 10, contacts of a previously announced infection.
New Brunswick has now had two deaths linked to COVID-19 and 186 confirmed cases since the pandemic began, of which 169 are considered recovered.
More than 56,700 COVID-19 tests have been conducted provincewide to date.
Algeria
Algeria reopened mosques, cafes, beaches and parks on Saturday for the first time in five months, relaxing one of the world’s longer virus confinement periods. Curfews remain in place in more than half the country as Algeria tries to contain the virus.
Crowds packed beaches in the capital Algiers, celebrating the opportunity to swim in the Mediterranean amid the August heat. Restaurants reopened, and mosques that can hold more than 1,000 people must ensure social distancing measures. Mosques remain closed to all women, children and the elderly.
Algeria reported more than 37,000 total virus infections and 1,350 deaths on Friday. It’s the third-highest death rate reported in Africa, after South Africa and Egypt.
Germany
Germany’s health minister has defended the decision to declare all of mainland Spain and the Balearic Islands “risk areas” for coronavirus infection. Travellers must undergo compulsory testing and two-week quarantine after arriving from there.
Health Minister Jens Spahn told Bild on Saturday that he knows “how much Germans love Spain as a vacation destination. But the numbers there are rising quickly, too quickly.”
The travel classification also includes the Spanish island of Mallorca, a popular destination for German tourists. Germany is providing free testing for coronavirus at airports and those who test negative can avoid quarantining for the full 14 days.
The Robert Koch Institute says Spain’s Canary Islands weren’t deemed a risk area.
The risk designation now covers most non-EU countries, including the United States, and several regions within the 27-nation bloc. CHECK HERE.
https://www.rki.de/DE/Content/InfAZ/N/Neuartiges_Coronavirus/Transport/Archiv_Risikogebiete/Risikogebiete_07082020_19_45_en.pdf?__blob=publicationFile
Italy
Vacationers arriving in Rome from four Mediterranean countries lined up with their suitcases at Leonardo da Vinci airport to be immediately tested for the new coronavirus on Sunday.
Last week, Italy’s health minister issued an ordinance requiring the tests for all travellers arriving in Italy from Croatia, Greece, Malta or Spain.
Travellers have the option of being tested instead within 48 hours of arrival at local public health offices closer to their home or destination in Italy.
Vacationers coming from abroad are fueling an increase in new coronavirus infections in Italy in recent weeks. On Saturday, the daily caseload of new infections topped 600 for the first time since May.
Alessio D’Amato, health commissioner for Lazio, the region including Rome, said at the airport that concern was mounting about the rising number of infections, especially since school resumes in Italy on Sept. 14, for the first time since the pandemic began.
France
Pressure is growing on the French government to require masks in all workplaces and in public as coronavirus infections surge. Paris police stepped up mask patrols Saturday as the French capital expanded the zones where face coverings are required in public, including neighbourhoods around the Louvre Museum and Champs-Elysees shopping district.
With cases in Paris rising particularly fast, police can now shut down cafes or any gathering of more than 10 people where distancing and other hygiene measures aren’t respected.
Masks are currently required outdoors in hundreds of French towns, but rules vary widely.
A collective of medical workers has urged a nationwide return to working at home, which France largely abandoned after two months of strict lockdown.
France recorded more than 2,800 new cases Friday, up from a few hundred daily cases a month ago. While the rise is partly attributed to increased testing, the rate of positive tests is also growing, and is now at 2.4%. However, the number of virus patients in French hospitals and intensive care units has not risen so far.
The rising infections prompted Britain to impose quarantine on vacationers returning from France starting on Saturday …
Britain
… thousands of British tourists beat a hasty retreat from France, packing planes, trains and ferries to return to the U.K. by the early hours of Saturday morning to avoid the mandatory 14-day quarantine at home.
On Friday, many British travellers in the country opted to cut short their vacations to meet the 4 a.m. Saturday deadline that had only been announced the night before. Anyone arriving back from France from Saturday must stay at home for two weeks to make sure they cannot spread the coronavirus beyond their households if they have become infected.
The exodus was prompted late Thursday when the British government took France off a list of nations exempt from traveller quarantine requirements because of a sharp rise in new coronavirus infections there.
A spokesman for the Le Shuttle car-carrying carrying rail service linking Britain and France under the English Channel said 12,000 people tried to book tickets in the hour after the new rules were announced, compared with just hundreds normally.
Some air fares were selling for significantly inflated prices compared to normal rates. British Airways was selling tickets for a flight from Paris to London on Friday night costing £452 pounds ($784). The same journey on Saturday could be made for just £66 ($114.50)
Ferry companies put on extra services but they sold out fast too.
For those who cannot work from home on their return, the mandatory self-quarantine could see them penalized further. Others just couldn’t face the prospect of having to stay at home for two weeks, unable to do even basic chores, go for a run or even to walk the dog.
Peter Norris, who managed to get on on one of the last flights Friday out of Nice, in the south of France, said it would have been “incredibly inconvenient” for him to face another two-week period cooped up at home.
“It’s not like during lockdown, where you can go for a run, go to the shops, come back,” he said. “None of that, we have to stay in, for two weeks.”
As well as complicating the return home for the hundreds of thousands of British tourists in France, the U.K. move has the potential to upend the plans of those planning trips in the days ahead, particularly of families during the run-up to schools reopening in September. French businesses running campsites in Brittany, wine-tasting tours in the Loire Valley or mountain treks in the Alps also have reason to worry.
The French government has indicated that it will respond in kind, a move that is set to further hobble travel and tourism between the two countries.
The British government insists it had to make the decision in light of a 66% spike in confirmed coronavirus cases in France in the past week. The Netherlands, Malta, Monaco and the Caribbean islands of Aruba and Turks & Caicos were also added to the U.K.’s quarantine list for the same reason.
In France, there’s a growing fear of a second spike of the outbreak. Health authorities on Friday reported 2,846 new virus cases in 24 hours, bringing the total for the week to over 12,900. Paris extended the areas of the city where pedestrians will be obliged to wear masks starting Saturday morning after health officials said the coronavirus is “active” in the French capital and the Mediterranean city of Marseille.
Last month, Spain, the number one summer holiday destination for British tourists, was taken off the exempt list.
New Zealand
Health authorities reported 13 new cases of the coronavirus in New Zealand on Sunday, including 12 linked to an outbreak in the city of Auckland and one returning traveller who was already in quarantine.
The outbreak in Auckland, discovered Tuesday, has prompted officials to put the nation’s largest city back into a two-week lockdown.
The outbreak has now grown to 49 infections, with authorities saying they believe all the cases are all connected, giving them hope the virus isn’t spreading beyond that cluster.
New Zealand had gone 102 days without community spread of the disease before the latest outbreak. Officials believe the virus was reintroduced to New Zealand from abroad but haven’t yet been able to figure out how it happened.
Hawaii
Kahului Airport on Maui has completed its second phase of its thermal screening project meant to combat the spread of the coronavirus. The screening uses thermal imaging and facial recognition technology to pinpoint people with a temperature of 100.4 degrees or higher. Dual lens cameras have been installed at all arrival gates and TSA checkpoints in the airport.
The Maui News reports that when phase three is completed, the cameras will be able to track travellers with high body temperatures so contact tracers can stop and screen them before they leave the airport.
Cruise
Cruise ship passengers had temperatures checked and took COVID-19 tests Sunday so they could set sail on what is being billed as the first Mediterranean cruise after Italy’s pandemic lockdown.
The cruise ship company MSC has made the procedures, for crew as well as passengers, part of its new health and safety protocols. The MSC Grandiosa departed from the port of Genoa on Sunday evening for a seven-night cruise.
Earlier this month, the Italian government gave its approval for cruise ships to depart from Italian ports.
The cruise around the western Mediterranean was limited to 70 percent capacity but MSC declined to say how many passengers were on board.