Covid

Canada’s COVID rules on leisure travel weighing on business, say industry officials

By Steven I. Green 5 months ago

By Allison Lampert and Rod Nickel

MONTREAL (Reuters) – Canada’s move to limit inbound flights to four major airports as it seeks to curb the spread of COVID-19 from leisure travel is spilling over to business trips and fueling uncertainty which could delay economic recovery, industry executives said.

Canada, which already has some of the world’s toughest travel and quarantine rules, plans to introduce restrictions such as mandatory airport COVID-19 tests and hotel quarantines for up to three days.

Directing flights to four airports — Toronto, Montreal, Calgary and Vancouver — which started Thursday, has created headaches for some companies in smaller cities.

Separately, the hotel quarantines, which were announced last week but await the drafting of formal rules, are creating uncertainty among essential business travelers who normally do not have to self-isolate.

“This kind of approach with business travel is going to hamper our efforts to rebound,” said Anthony

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United makes Hawaii travel easier with expanded COVID testing, pre-clearance program

By Steven I. Green 5 months ago

The new pre-clearance process will be in place for customers traveling on 110 of United’s weekly flights to Hawaii

Beginning February 1, United customers traveling to Hawaii who have a valid negative COVID-19 test can show their results before boarding to save time and skip document screening lines upon arrival. The new pre-clearance process will be in place for customers traveling on 110 of United’s weekly flights to Hawaii.

United is also making it easier to get the right tests to avoid Hawaii’s 14-day quarantine by making approved COVID-19 tests available to all customers traveling to the islands no matter where in the U.S. their travel begins.

“We’re making it easier for customers traveling to Hawaii to spend more time enjoying their trip and less time waiting in lines,” said Toby Enqvist, chief customer officer at United. “Testing is the key to opening domestic and international travel so we’ll continue

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No Changes To Chicago’s Emergency Travel Order; Negative COVID Test Or Quarantine Required Upon Arrival From All States Except Hawaii

By Steven I. Green 5 months ago

CHICAGO (CBS) — Travelers coming to Chicago from anywhere in the U.S. except Hawaii remain subject to the city’s COVID-19 restrictions, meaning they either must test negative for the virus before arriving or quarantine for 10 days once they get here.

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The city did not make any changes to its “emergency travel order” this week, meaning 48 states and two territories (Puerto Rico and Washington, D.C.) are still in the “orange” category, meaning travelers headed to Chicago from those locations must either obtain a negative coronavirus test no more than 72 hours before arrival in Chicago or quarantine for 10 days when they arrive.

Only Hawaii is listed in the “yellow” travel category, meaning travelers from that state face no test or quarantine mandate, but must still follow social distancing and masking requirements while in Chicago.

The city’s travel order applies to both Chicago residents returning home from

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The UK’s half-baked Covid travel quarantine scheme will not work

By Steven I. Green 5 months ago

A fundamental step in handling an outbreak of an infectious disease is to locate where it originated and prevent any more cases of the disease coming into your community or country. If you can cut off the source, you can devote your resources and efforts to suppressing its spread, and coping with the health and social problems it has created. The approach of imposing isolation on arrivals, known as quarantine, is centuries old. At a time when an understanding of the nature of infectious diseases was virtually nonexistent, it was one of the few control methods that worked. In times of plague and pestilence, cities and states often applied it with enormous rigour.



a man standing next to a bag of luggage: Photograph: Steve Parsons/PA

© Provided by The Guardian
Photograph: Steve Parsons/PA



a man standing next to a suitcase: Passengers arriving at Heathrow Airport. ‘Determining who will be subject to self-isolation and who will be subject to mandatory quarantine will probably be a valueless task.’

© Photograph: Steve Parsons/PA
Passengers arriving at Heathrow Airport. ‘Determining who will be subject to self-isolation and who will be subject to mandatory quarantine will probably be a valueless

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