Archive: July 2021

This is the summer of the vaccinated travel has in the US, and it’s wreaking havoc on some of the nation’s airlines and airports. Here are some ways for our Globe Aware volunteers to avoid stress that comes with it.

I volunteer at a major airport and deal with hundreds of unprepared travelers. Here are 12 ways to avoid lines and have a stress-free summer travel experience

Thomas Pallini
Jul 1, 2021

• Americans have been taking to the skies this summer more than any season since the start of the pandemic.
• Airlines and airports are still adjusting to increased passenger levels, causing long lines and delays.
• These travel tips will help flyers avoid lines and move through the airport easier.

The summer of vaccinated travel has arrived in the US, and it’s wreaking havoc on some of the nation’s airlines and airports.

AAA estimates that 47.7 million Americans will travel over Fourth of July weekend and air travel will likely see a large share of that number. Every day since June 22 has seen more than 1.8 million travelers depart from US airports and four days in that period have seen more than two million.

If a Globe Aware volunteer tests positive for COVID-19 or learn that they were exposed to the virus while traveling, it’s important to be responsible, doing everything possible to avoid spreading it. Follow these tips to help spare other people the same fate and limit your added expenses!

What to Do If You Get COVID-19 While Traveling: 8 Tips to Get Back on Track

Getting sick while traveling doesn’t have to be a disaster.

Alicia A. Wallace
Healthline

It’s been over a year since the COVID-19 pandemic forced major changes to most of our lives. Countries all over the world continue to have a hard time responding to the spread of the virus and the resulting crises.

Since the vaccine became available, more countries have opened their borders. People who have been itching to travel can finally hit the road.

There’s still some risk in traveling during the pandemic, but it feels a bit safer.

Volunteer alum Jodi Lipson speaks of her Globe Aware experiences with her family, and find out how you can book your meaningful volunteer vacation.

How to Volunteer While Traveling With Your Kids

Looking for meaningful travel? Volunteering lets you give back and grow as a family.

BY KEN BUDD 
JULY 15, 2021
The Voluntourist

When Jodi Lipson’s daughter was seven, the duo embarked on a mommy-daughter adventure — and no, they didn’t travel to Disneyland. For one week, the pair did maintenance work at a hostel in Peru and helped local schoolchildren learn English. They soon worked on three more projects with volunteer organization Globe Aware in Guatemala, Cambodia, and Costa Rica. The experiences, said Lipson, who works in book publishing in D.C., have expanded the worldview of her now 13-year-old daughter.

The king of Bhutan has taken it upon himself to hike across the country to help curb the Covid-19 pandemic because “his Majesty’s presence is far more powerful than just issuing public guidelines.” Globe Aware applauds the king’s continuing dedication and efforts to help his people.

Bhutan’s king has been hiking and camping across his mountainous kingdom to oversee pandemic measures

Matthew Loh
June 28, 2021

• Bhutan’s king has been making personal trips across the country to visit remote regions and meet Covid-19 taskforces.
• His Facebook page shows him donning a baseball cap, hiking attire, and a backpack on his treks.
• Bhutan is one of the world’s most mountainous countries, with an average elevation of 8,000 feet.

The king of Bhutan has taken it upon himself to hike across mountains, visit remote villages, and trudge through leech-infested jungles to help his country curb the Covid-19 pandemic.

King Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck has been making trips by car, horse, and foot across his kingdom to supervise pandemic measures and warn his people of the coronavirus, according to the official royal Facebook page. He’s been making the trips over the last 14 months and has managed to span Bhutan’s eastern border – which is more than 400 miles long – reported Reuters.

One of his latest treks lasted five days across 41 miles, according to the royal Facebook page, in which he sported an outdoor backpack, hiking gear, and sometimes a pair of sunglasses or a dark baseball cap.

Camping on the slopes and among the trees by night, and dropping by rural settlements in the day, he has spoken to health workers in various regions and inspected several border posts.

Whenever he finishes a tour and arrives back in the capital of Thimpu, he quarantines himself in a hotel according to protocol, said Reuters.

The monarch is immensely popular among the people of Bhutan. He’s known for traveling to meet and discuss the country’s policies with his people. When he took the throne in 2006, he relinquished his absolute powers to turn Bhutan into a constitutional monarchy as part of a democratization process.

“When the king travels for miles and knocks… to alert people about the pandemic, then his humble words are respected and taken very seriously,” Bhutan Prime Minister Lotay Tshering told Reuters.

“His Majesty’s presence is far more powerful than just issuing public guidelines,” said Tshering, who accompanies the 41-year-old king on his trips.

According to the royal Facebook page, the king is concerned by a recent “large number” of community infections in the region.

Bhutan, a land-locked kingdom of 700,000 people that is surrounded by China and India, is one of the world’s most mountainous countries with an average elevation of 8,000 feet. Its southern neighbor, India, has been battling one of the worst Covid-19 outbreaks in the world but Bhutan has had relatively few cases.

As of June 28, Bhutan has reported 2,052 Covid-19 cases and one death caused by the coronavirus.

As a Covid precaution, Bhutan closed its borders to all but essential travel in April.

However, there is concern about “frequent interactions between people across the porous border” with India, according to the royal Facebook page.

“(The king) has been to all high-risk border areas time and again to monitor every measure put in place and to ensure best practices are followed within limited resources,” Rui Paulo de Jesus, the World Health Organization representative in Bhutan told Reuters.

Bhutan is currently struggling with a severe vaccine shortage. While it managed to provide around 90% of the country with one dose of the AstraZeneca vaccine, it does not currently have enough doses to ensure that its citizens receive a second dose.

The government is contemplating offering mixed doses of another vaccine to residents. Both Canada and Spain have already approved mixing vaccines, and studies have shown that taking the Pfizer vaccine as a second dose to the Astrazeneca vaccine is safe.

Stress, jet lag, cramped airplane seats, new foods and exhaustion all conspire to test your physical limits. Globe Aware volunteers can avoid these travel symptoms by following these helpful tips!

How to deal with vacation constipation, swelling and other travel symptoms

A. Pawlowski
July 2, 2021
TODAY

Travel can do wonders for the soul. It can also do a number on your body.

The very word originates from “travail,” or “painful or laborious effort,” according to the Oxford English Dictionary.

Painful, indeed, as stress, jet lag, cramped airplane seats, new foods and exhaustion all conspire to test your physical limits.

The new CDC travel guidelines now include specific recommendations for both vaccinated and unvaccinated travelers. Globe Aware volunteers should continue to check their destination’s page to stay updated on travel restrictions.

CDC Travel Guidelines Relax for More than 100 Countries

France, Japan, and Mexico are among the destinations with revised guidelines.

BY SHANNON MCMAHON
June 9, 2021
Condé Nast Traveler

On Monday the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) revised its coronavirus travel guidelines for over 100 countries “to better differentiate countries with severe outbreak situations from countries with sustained, but controlled, COVID-19 spread,” the agency said on its website. The new CDC travel guidelines now include specific recommendations for both vaccinated and unvaccinated travelers.

The 110 changes includes 61 places that have been downgraded from the highest Level 4 status to a Level 3, plus 50 more lowered to Levels 1 and 2, reports Reuters. The U.S. State Department has mirrored the CDC changes by lowering 85 of its own travel advisories for countries including Japan ahead of the Olympics, but told Reuters it did not lower all 110 advisories after taking into consideration “commercial flight availability, restrictions on U.S. citizen entry, and impediments to obtaining COVID test results within three calendar days.” (Returning to the United States still requires a COVID-19 test taken no more than 72 hours in advance.)

Countries downgraded to a Level 1, for “low” COVID-19 risk, include Singapore, Israel, South Korea, Iceland, and Belize. Level 2 “moderate-risk” countries include Barbados, Bermuda, Cambodia, Mauritius, Uganda, and Zambia. Countries downgraded from Level 4 (“very high” risk) to a Level 3 “high” COVID-19 risk include Ecuador, France, the Philippines, South Africa, Mexico, Russia, Spain, Switzerland, Turkey, Ukraine, Honduras, Hungary, and Italy.

The new rankings are a result of revised criteria for each tier, with the highest Level 4 now assigned to destinations with 500 cases per 100,000 (more lenient than the previous 100 COVID-19 cases per 100,000 benchmark). For Level 3 and 4 destinations, the CDC recommends that travelers avoid non-essential travel, and be fully vaccinated (two weeks out from their final shot) if they do visit. Level 2 advises travelers are fully vaccinated, and that “unvaccinated travelers who are at increased risk for severe illness from COVID-19 should avoid nonessential travel to the these destinations.” Level 1 only advises that travelers be fully vaccinated.

CDC travel guidelines do not take into account the country or territory’s restrictions for Americans, however. Singapore, for example, which is classified under the lowest level, does not permit anyone traveling from outside Australia, Brunei, mainland China, New Zealand, Taiwan, Hong Kong, or Macau to enter without quarantining for 21 days. Japan is classified as Level 3 by both the CDC and State Department ahead of next month’s year-delayed Olympic Games in Tokyo, though the Games will not allow foreign spectators to attend.

Regions where non-U.S. citizens are still barred from entering the U.S. despite very low COVID-19 case loads, including China, certain European nations, the U.K., and South Africa, could potentially see those restrictions removed following “an interagency conversation” that is “looking at the data in real time as to how we should move forward,” CDC Director Rochelle Walensky told Reuters. The Biden administration is reportedly working with those countries toward reopening travel after more than one year of restrictions.

We’re reporting on how COVID-19 impacts travel on a daily basis. Find our latest coronavirus coverage here, or visit our complete guide to COVID-19 and travel.