moisheh wrote:
This is a heads up for all Canadians that have a travel health policy. Even if it is a group policy. Some insurers are saying that your coverage has ended yesterday. Some are saying you still have coverage but not for the Virus. Some are giving you 10 days from Trudeau's announcement. Some will extend the 10 days if you have a valid reason ( like being in quarantine). I have no idea what the provinces are doing. If they don't provide coverage your travel policy is null and void. This is serious. I We are headed to HMO right away to see what is happening in the big city. If the stores are not jammed we might just take a chance and stay. We are more worried about the drive from Tucson to Manitoba. Hard to not have some minimal contact with other people. And by the time we get back will the health system be able to handle the crisis? Hard to think straight under duress. Sonora announced a bunch of new rules concerning bars and meetings, etc. But no mention of canceling Semana santa. We get upwards of 40,000 people in our pueblo!
Moisheh
If you can get away from the media panic you can use math to comfort yourself for your trip. There are 327 million people in the US out of which there are 5216 confirmed cases of the virus. That means only one out of every 62,000 people you meet have a confirmed case. Even if the infection rate is 100 times greater than being reported you have only a one in 600 chance of any person you encounter being infected. And of course, encountering an infected person does not automatically mean you will become infected. Finally, the vast majority of people who become infected will not require hospitalization. For most it is either without symptoms or their symptoms peak at something between a bad cold and a bout of the flu. Older persons with serious existing health problems are at most risk of hospitalization, but then again, they were most at risk for hospitalization before COVID19 ever appeared. Overflowing hospitals are a worst case scenario that makes great headlines. But in has not happened in South Korea and the virus apparently is in retreat in China without infecting most of their 1 billion plus citizens. Both the US and Canada have exceptional healthcare facilities and an overall population that is healthier than the hard hit countries. The final impacts are almost assuredly going to be much less than those worse case scenarios.
