Coronavirus- How Scary is it for Tourists?

Saturday 1st of February 2020

Coronavirus- How Scary is it for Tourists?

On 28th January, Minister of Tourism Mr Ali Waheed announced that more than 2,000 of tourist bookings to the island nation has been cancelled since the outbreak of novel coronavirus.

Airlines in Europe, Asia and North America are cancelling flights to and from China due to the virus originated in the Chinese city of Wuhan.

On Friday, U.S. Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Alex Azar announced that all foreign nationals who appear at risk of spreading the virus will be denied entry into the United States beginning 5:00 p.m. EST on 2nd February. Several Asian countries have also tightened their borders.

Even the biggest companies like Facebook said it had asked employees to stop any non-essential travel to mainland China and called for staff to work from home.

For travelers, “there may be difficulties getting back out of there, there may be issues with exposure to infection and then getting health care in that area,” Adalja, an infectious disease expert says.

Vincent Racaniello, a virologist and professor of microbiology & immunology at Columbia University says that travel ban is ineffective and people are still moving. “If it gets in every country of the world in significant numbers then we might not be able to get rid of it like we did with SARs.”