corona virus alerts - Latest cruising Information for vessels/locations/rules

[GordMay]

Hospitals in chaos as Fiji battles COVID-19 hell

Fiji’s spiralling COVID-19 crisis reached a terrifying new milestone this month, as the World Health Organization (WHO) reported that the country’s spread of infection was one of the highest in the world. With more than 200 dead – including three pregnant women and a 15-year-old – there have been more than 27,000 confirmed coronavirus cases in the country since the current outbreak began in April this year. Actual numbers are estimated to be much higher ...
... While much of Viti Levu remains on a tight 6pm (06:00 GMT) to 4am (16:00 GMT) curfew, the government has also made masks compulsory in public places and requires all businesses to ensure customers and employees scan a unique QR code via the government contact-tracing app before being allowed to enter the premises ...

More about ➥ https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/...-covid-19-hell

[El Pinguino]

Originally Posted by GordMay

Hospitals in chaos as Fiji battles COVID-19 hell
......

More about ➥ https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/...-covid-19-hell

And so it goes -
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/hea...tocol-incident

[Montanan]

Turks and Caicos Update:

From September 1, all travelers aged 16 and over will need to show proof of vaccination before entering, with jabs being completed at least two weeks before arrival.

Most of the local population has already popped its shots, with more than 70% of adults fully vaccinated with the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, says the Turks and Caicos Islands Tourist Board.

[Montanan]

Hawaii Governor David Ige encouraged potential tourists not to visit the islands amid a surge of coronavirus cases, saying it is "a risky time to be traveling right now." "I encourage everyone to restrict and curtail travel to Hawaii," Ige said during a press conference on Monday. "It's not a good time to travel to the islands."

Ige said that travel should be limited to "essential business activities only." Visitors, he said, will not have the "typical" vacation that they would expect, as restaurant capacity has been restricted and rental vehicles are limited. There have been more than 9,300 new cases in the past two weeks. The majority of new cases have been in Oahu, one of the most popular Hawaiian destinations for travelers.

"We are seeing more COVID patients in our hospitals and the ICUs are filling up," Ige said on Monday. "We know that we need to take action now in order to reduce the spread of COVID and ensure that our hospitals are not overrun."

[Montanan]

The majority of destinations in the Caribbean - as well as Bermuda and the Bahamas - are now characterized by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as "Level 4" because of very high rates of covid-19, which means the public health agency recommends avoiding travel.

"As winter approaches and travelers start dreaming of warm weather, the Caribbean beckons. But 19 months into the pandemic, much of the region is struggling with the delta variant surge and insufficient access to the coronavirus vaccine. Late last month, the Pan American Health Organization warned that health systems in some Eastern Caribbean islands were becoming overwhelmed with the increase of cases and shortages of workers and supplies."

In all, more than 20 destinations are listed as Level 4.

Another handful - including Anguilla, Bonaire, Turks and Caicos, and Trinidad and Tobago - are Level 3, which means covid-19 is high and only vaccinated people should visit. Just a few are at the two lowest levels, including the Dominican Republic and Cayman Islands.

https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/most...214000408.html

[Thumbs Up]

Originally Posted by Montanan

The majority of destinations in the Caribbean - as well as Bermuda and the Bahamas - are now characterized by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as "Level 4" because of very high rates of covid-19, which means the public health agency recommends avoiding travel.

"As winter approaches and travelers start dreaming of warm weather, the Caribbean beckons. But 19 months into the pandemic, much of the region is struggling with the delta variant surge and insufficient access to the coronavirus vaccine. Late last month, the Pan American Health Organization warned that health systems in some Eastern Caribbean islands were becoming overwhelmed with the increase of cases and shortages of workers and supplies."

In all, more than 20 destinations are listed as Level 4.

Another handful - including Anguilla, Bonaire, Turks and Caicos, and Trinidad and Tobago - are Level 3, which means covid-19 is high and only vaccinated people should visit. Just a few are at the two lowest levels, including the Dominican Republic and Cayman Islands.

https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/most...214000408.html

What the article fails to mention (as someone expressed in the comments section):

They are listed as level 4 hot spots and are BELOW the U.S. infection rate. We really need to look in the mirror more often.

[GordMay]

China orders 13 million residents into lockdown as COVID-19 cases rise
China is redoubling efforts to control new virus outbreaks with a lockdown of the 13 million residents of the northern city of Xi'an, following a spike in coronavirus cases.
There was no word on whether the virus was the newly surging Omicron variant, or the far more common Delta.
Much more ➥ https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/china-...i-an-1.6296105



Nigeria destroys 1 million expired doses of COVID-19 vaccine
The expired doses — numbering 1,066,214 — were destroyed on Wednesday in Nigeria's capital, Abuja, a week after the country said [1] it will no longer accept donated COVID-19 vaccines with short shelf lives.
Faisal Shuaib, head of Nigeria's National Primary Health Care Development Agency, said Nigeria was put in a difficult situation by developed countries that had "procured these vaccines and hoarded them … [and] at the point they were about to expire, they offered them for donation."
More ➥ https://www.cbc.ca/news/health/niger...ines-1.6295131
[1] ➥ https://apnews.com/article/coronavir...3b93a28cc4190d

[davil]

[QUOTE=Montanan;3498459]The majority of destinations in the Caribbean - as well as Bermuda and the Bahamas - are now characterized by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as "Level 4" because of very high rates of covid-19, which means the public health agency recommends avoiding travel.

"As winter approaches and travelers start dreaming of warm weather, the Caribbean beckons. But 19 months into the pandemic, much of the region is struggling with the delta variant surge and insufficient access to the coronavirus vaccine. Late last month, the Pan American Health Organization warned that health systems in some Eastern Caribbean islands were becoming overwhelmed with the increase of cases and shortages of workers and supplies."

In all, more than 20 destinations are listed as Level 4.
=================================
yes

updated sites I follow
no doubt cases start to show spikes, these are destinations I am interested, they have been quite steady since September until now


https://www.bing.com/covid/local/bahamas?form=C19ANS

https://www.bing.com/covid/local/puertorico?form=C19ANS

https://www.bing.com/covid/local/bermuda?form=C19ANS

[Montanan]

If you opt to travel or cruise during the pandemic and become infected, one must anticipate that you will not be allowed to enter a country, or to return to a country, by way of example, if you test positive for Covid then you could be caused to be isolated for extended periods of time and refused to board a flight to repatriate and thus may find difficulty as to obtaining health care.

Today's news.

A Royal Caribbean cruise ship was denied entry into two island nations after 55 fully vaccinated crew members and passengers contracted Covid-19 only days after the ship had set sail from Fort Lauderdale.
Odyssey of the Seas was barred from entering Curacao and Aruba, effectively remaining at sea until its planned return December 26 to Fort Lauderdale.

Health officials in Curacao refused to allow the ship to dock because the percentage of infected people on board was too high, the Curacao Chronicle reported.
There were 51 positive cases on board on Wednesday morning, according to Dr. Izzy Gerstenbluth, Curacao's national epidemiologist.
"The day before yesterday, 18 crew members were positive, yesterday 36 and this morning there were 51. In addition, several crew members have not been quarantined, so there is a good chance that passengers have also been infected," said Gerstenbluth.
"With these numbers of infections, that percentage has been exceeded and we are therefore not eager to receive these people on the island, especially not with the current figures on the island,"

https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/r...ied/index.html

[davil]

[QUOTE=davil;3542219]

Originally Posted by Montanan

The majority of destinations in the Caribbean - as well as Bermuda and the Bahamas - are now characterized by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as "Level 4" because of very high rates of covid-19, which means the public health agency recommends avoiding travel.

"As winter approaches and travelers start dreaming of warm weather, the Caribbean beckons. But 19 months into the pandemic, much of the region is struggling with the delta variant surge and insufficient access to the coronavirus vaccine. Late last month, the Pan American Health Organization warned that health systems in some Eastern Caribbean islands were becoming overwhelmed with the increase of cases and shortages of workers and supplies."

In all, more than 20 destinations are listed as Level 4.
=================================
yes

updated sites I follow
no doubt cases start to show spikes, these are destinations I am interested, they have been quite steady since September until now


https://www.bing.com/covid/local/bahamas?form=C19ANS

https://www.bing.com/covid/local/puertorico?form=C19ANS

https://www.bing.com/covid/local/bermuda?form=C19ANS

=========================================

trending up

Mele Kalikimaka

[Auspicious]

Originally Posted by Montanan

The majority of destinations in the Caribbean - as well as Bermuda and the Bahamas - are now characterized by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as "Level 4" because of very high rates of covid-19, which means the public health agency recommends avoiding travel.

So is pretty much all of the US. https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tra...ases_community

[donradcliffe]

An update from boots on the ground. I flew to La Paz on 12/11/21 to pick up a boat and entered the US at San Diego 0n 12/23/21.

The airline required us to go to a Mexican website vuelaseguro.com within 12 hours of the flight, fill out a bunch of info, and get a QR code for my phone. No one in Mexico made any covid checks or asked for the QR code.

All of the crew were triple vaccinated, and carried covid cards to show the officials on entering the US. No one in San Diego made any covid checks or asked for proof of vaccination or tests.

[CatNewBee]

Originally Posted by donradcliffe

An update from boots on the ground. I flew to La Paz on 12/11/21 to pick up a boat and entered the US at San Diego 0n 12/23/21.

The airline required us to go to a Mexican website vuelaseguro.com within 12 hours of the flight, fill out a bunch of info, and get a QR code for my phone. No one in Mexico made any covid checks or asked for the QR code.

All of the crew were triple vaccinated, and carried covid cards to show the officials on entering the US. No one in San Diego made any covid checks or asked for proof of vaccination or tests.

Good to know, we will enter by sea end of January.

[Simi 60]

Originally Posted by CatNewBee

Good to know, we will enter by sea end of January.

Good to know what exactly?
That they are **** at their job and treating it like a joke?

[Sand crab]

My sis is a travel agent so she gets free or almost free cruises all the time. We did a cruise this month on the new Virgin Voyages Scarlet Lady. The itinerary was supposed to be Miami, Dominion Republic, Bahamas but for some reason DR was dropped beforehand and they substituted Costa Maya, MX. Proof of vacc was required and then everyone was tested at no cost just prior to boarding which went pretty smoothly. Masks weren't required on board for the passengers and no one masked up but all the crew were wearing them. There were no further hurdles when disembarking in either country or coming back to the US. FWIW kids are never allowed on that boat even in regular times. I didn't care for Costa Maya but Bimini was great. The boat, food and staff were super.

We were booked on a Carnival Cruise this January from LA to Cabo, Mazatlan and PV but are almost certain we will cancel because a Holland ship wasn't allowed to disembark passengers in PV because of positive cases on board. And we have to submit and pay for our own negative test results 48 ours before boarding. Also I think that most ships are requiring masks be worn by the passengers now so that dampens things a bit. I'm not anti-mask and am fully vacced and boosted but I hate the damn things. I think we're going to rent an oceanfront condo in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina instead.