Tag Archives for coronavirus.
Heads of State rent out entire hotel floors for security reasons but several hotels now, at lowest-ever occupancy, are offering to rent out entire floors for people looking for Covid safety. That seems entirely unnecessary.
There haven’t been any documented cases of spread between rooms either in hotels or office buildings. The virus doesn’t spread through walls.
The same rules allowing Delta’s club lounge to serve alcohol despite the Michigan governor’s order closing bars should apply equally to restaurants in the airport for those who don’t have club membership and are willing to pay for a drink.
However it seems a lot easier for people to drink alone, as Michigan’s governor seems to prefer people in her state do, than make a trip out to the airport just for liquor. It would be fascinating to see Delta’s internal data over the next three weeks about whether alcohol consumption continues to track with passenger numbers, or whether it increases on a per-admittance basis in to the club.
Each country will take a somewhat different approach to dealing with passengers that have received Covid-19 vaccinations, and the challenge is coming sooner than later (in fact it’s already here).
With a vaccine for Covid-19 seeming like a real possibility next year, but taking time to roll out broadly across the population, companies whose activities bring large groups together are working to figure out how to do that faster. One way is through technology to ensure that everyone congregating indoors is likely to be free of the virus.
Airlines will need to figure out how much airflow they can maintain while applying de-icing fluid to aircraft with passengers on board.
A leaked memo has detailed Bali’s tourism re-opening plans. On Friday, November 6th a government meeting took place at the Astor hotel between Bali’s airport authority, Director General of Indonesian Health, and Minister of Maritime Affairs. The memo details the plan for Bali’s Ngurah Rai International Airport to begin accepting international tourists on December 1. Bali’s Governor confirms the meeting.
Pfizer reports their Covid-19 vaccine, in conjunction with BioNTech, so far appears 90% effective. With 94 people in the clinical trial having gotten Covid-19 so far, that means people in the control group receiving the placebo were about 10 times as likely to get the virus as someone who had received the vaccine.
The drug maker could reach milestone of 2 months since the second dose for half of trial participants in order to apply for Emergency Use Authorization next week. They report no ‘serious’ side effects in the trial. That’s great news, great progress. And it means we should have great optimism for travel.
Pre-departure testing is a requirement to travel to Hawaii, New York, and even much of the world where borders are at least partially open. Airlines have been working to get clinics open inside of airports, and to coordinate rapid turnaround testing for their passengers.
Airlines previously advocated for the government to do temperature checks of all passengers. The airlines themselves require passengers to fill out a health checklist as part of check-in, and require masks in areas of airport terminals they control and on board their planes. Airlines and airports have new cleaning regimes to address potential surface transmission of SARS-CoV-2.
But did you know that some airports have been trying to spend CARES Act money to set up screening regimes, and the federal government hasn’t allowed them to do it?
CVS Pharmacy is a trusted partner for Hawaii, and one San Diego family got their CVS test prior to travel. They arrived in Hawaii, presented their negative results, and were sent to quarantine anyway.
Facing the prospect of 14 days of quarantine, they decided to fly home. Once the family arrived back in California they got an email from Hawaii acknowledging the mistake and inviting them to leave quarantine.
Even if there’s an emergency use authorization for a vaccine in the U.S. in December it’s likely late in the second quarter before it’s available for most Americans. Will you wait until June for a vaccine, when you can get one somewhere else in the world if you have the ability to travel and the money to buy one? Would you take a trip to Dubai to get a vaccine six months earlier?
Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel -- a topic he has covered since 2002.
Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »
