Traveling During a Virus Pandemic – How is the coronavirus (COVID-19) affecting us?

Disclaimer: I am not a doctor, scientist, or expert of any kind!

While we stopped following the daily news because it brings unnecessary stress, distraction and negative energy to our lives, it has been quite hard to miss the Coronavirus outbreak pandemic (COVID-19). Especially since we’ve been traveling through Southeast Asia these past 5 months.

We happened to have upcoming plans to visit countries that are currently experiencing widespread transmission of the virus (including Italy and Japan) as well as plans to visit the US. We wanted to share how we plan to handle our travels for the rest of 2020, what part of our itinerary we might change, any recommendations we are following to stay healthy and how we see this outbreak pandemic in general.

Note: We will keep updating this post with major updates to our personal situation until life gets back to normal, so feel free to come back to it if you want to catch up.

Personal updates

Here is a timeline of events that have been affecting our nomadic journey since this article initially came out on 3/9/2019

• On 3/19/2020, we are starting the 2nd day of our self-quarantine. The quarantine field agent we talked to yesterday has reached out to us this morning do check on us and see if you have any symptoms. Later in the afternoon, he asked us to purchase a local sim card, as he could not track our location with our current Google FI number. Since we can’t leave the apartment, we are working with Mrs. NN’s family to have someone deliver the sim card to us.
• On 3/18/2020, we are starting the 1st day of our 14 days self-quarantine in the AirBnB we got for two weeks here in Taiwan. We can’t go outside so we are using food and grocery delivery services to get the food with need during this confinement. In the meantime, the government of Taiwan just announced that no more foreigners will be allowed to enter the country starting 3/19 (source: https://www.taiwannews.com.tw/en/news/3899387).
  Taiwan is doing the home quarantining right (amongst many things). They tested our mobile numbers at immigration and got our physical address. You cannot use public transport to leave the airport – uber, taxi or rental car only. A field agent paid us a visit at our apartment today! He checked on us in the calmest and friendly manner (photos below are from our Line communication). Shortly after, the local police contacted us via Line, equally friendly. We take our social responsibility very seriously but we need to remind ourselves to still smile!

• 

• 

• On 3/17/2020, we left Bali and made it to Taiwan. As we arrived at the airport in Taiwan, the government just require ALL visitors to go under a mandatory home self-quarantine. The CDC staff members took our phone numbers (which they tested on the spot) and our address so they could do surprise checks. Plus they had health forms and temperature checks for us to fill out through the quarantine. Our experience at the airport was a great testimony on the country’s effectiveness in controlling the virus. We’ve been quite impressed, to say the least. We are really happy to do the quarantine because it’s the right thing to do and respect the people living here. We were planning to self-quarantine ourselves anyway because while we’ve been practicing social distancing (by staying mostly inside our villa in Bali for the past week), there was going to be a high chance to get exposed to infected people during our transit to TW.
• On 3/16/2020, France declared “war against COVID-19” and people are asked to limit their contact with the outside only to basic necessities.
• On 3/15/2020, We canceled our AirBnB booking to Italy as we could still get a full refund as part of the booking policy and the current situation doesn’t look good for the tourism in this country at the moment.
• On 3/14/2020. As perpetual travelers, we have been looking at the safest places to be right now and our top choices were Singapore and Taiwan. We decided to skip going back home (California or France) at the moment as we know the spread is expected to accelerate in the weeks to come in both countries.
• On 3/13/2020: We are getting worried that if the government of Indonesia declares a state of emergency in the country, the infrastructure won’t be able to handle the situation and we might not even be able to leave.
• On 3/12/2020, The president of the USA declares a ban to all foreigners coming from Europe to the USA effective on 3/13/2020.
• On 3/11/2020, the CDC declared the COVID-19 a pandemic. The US announced that foreigners from Europe won’t be able to enter the country.
• On 3/9/2019, when this article went live, we canceled our trip to Japan and we planning to extend our stay in Ubud for a second month

Some links to the products mentioned below are affiliate links, meaning that if you click and make a purchase, Nomad Numbers may receive a commission at no additional cost to you. For more information please review our disclaimer page.

COVID-19 in the world

What is the coronavirus COVID-19?

According to the World Health Organization (WHO) COVID-19 is a new strain of the Coronavirus (CoV). CoV is a large family of viruses that causes respiratory tract infections. CoV is transmitted between animals and people. (source)

The epicenter of the outbreak was in Wuhan, Hubei Province, China and it had some link to a large seafood and live animals market where the spread started from animal to person before moving from person to person. (source). 

While the symptoms of the virus are similar to the flu, COVID-19 is a novel strain which means our body isn’t immune to it. In some serious cases, the virus will cause pneumonia, organ failure that might lead to death.

Which countries are currently impacted?

As of this writing, almost one hundred countries/regions/territories have currently confirmed cases of the virus. To get a live update of the spread of the virus, please refer to the Coronavirus COVID-19 Global Cases tracker (by Johns Hopkins CSSE) or Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) Situation dashboard (by the World Health Organization). 

The CDC provides a risk assessment per country, by categorizing country into four levels:

• Countries with widespread sustained (ongoing) transmission and restriction on entry to the United States – (As of 3/8/2020 China and Iran are two countries classified at this level).
• Countries with widespread sustained (ongoing) transmission. (As of 3/8/2020 South Korea and Italy are two countries classified at this level).
• Countries with sustained (ongoing) transmission. (As of 3/8/2020 Japan is the one country classified at this level).
• Countries with limited community transmission. (As of 3/8/2020 Hong Kong is the one country at this level.)

What is being done to control the COVID-19 outbreak?

According to epidemiologists, the spread of COVID-19 can not be contained anymore. As such, we personally treat it like the weather and simply act accordingly rather than worrying about it happening.

The good news is that so far, for healthy people under age 40, the health risk appears relatively low for each individual. One early study from China put the mortality rate for this age group at 0.2%, meaning that if 500 people get it, only one dies. The real odds are likely better due to unreported mild cases.

The bad news is that risk appears to be dramatically higher if you are age 70 or older, or if you have a chronic health condition like diabetes or respiratory/cardiovascular disease, which makes us concerned about our respective parents which are well above 60 years old.

COVID-19 and us

What are we doing about the COVID-19 outbreak pandemic?

As for us, sInce we are still young and healthy, we focus mainly on two things:

• Washing our hands – Washing our hands with soap and water for 20 seconds often and especially before going to the bathroom, eating or touching our faces. This is one of the most efficient ways to avoid getting exposed to the virus.
• Boosting our immune system – Our immune system is really good at handling viruses so we are keeping it as strong as possible. (This is actually one of the reasons why very few cases are reported involving kids since they have a more robust immune system than adults).

To boost our immune system we like to:

• Eat a healthy diet – This means eating nutritious food (plenty of fruits and vegetables) as well as keeping our sugar intake low (since sugar tends to suppress the immune system).
• Cook at least one meal per day – This gives us greater control of what goes and does not go into our food. 
• Get our daily quota of Vitamin D – We spend at least 30 minutes outside every day which is enough to get your daily quota of Vitamin D. We are also considering taking a Vitamin D supplement if we end up traveling to less sunny places(one option is Sport Research – Vitamin D3 (5000iu/125mcg).

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

What are we not doing about the COVID-19 outbreak pandemic?

What to do is as important as what to avoid. Here is what we are NOT doing:

• We are NOT panicking – We aren’t sitting around in fear because this might be the end of the world. We aren’t expecting a vaccine to be available if we need it and instead we focus on preventing contamination, boosting our immune system and enjoying the joy of nomadic travel!
• We are NOT traveling to a country with a travel ban/restriction in place – This means not planning to travel (or transfer) through China or Iran for instance. We keep an eye on the COVID-19 risk assessment by country before making further bookings.
• We are NOT wearing masks – Surgical masks have been reportedly not being effective to prevent the virus. Also since you can also get the virus through your eyes, this isn’t really a good protection mechanism as the mask won’t help you there. We do however comply with regulation when we are asked to wear a mask in a public space (this was the case for us while landing at the Da Nang airport in Vietnam in February). 
• We are NOT using hand sanitizer. We prefer to use soap and water as hand sanitizers tend to kill the natural microbiome on your skin. We might consider getting some in case we are in places with no easy access to soap and water. 

How CoV-19 might affect our plans?

After Bali, our plan was to visit Japan for a month (and experience the cherry blossoms with my parents). From there, we booked flights to head back to California and spend time with Mrs. NN’s parents before starting our European leg for 4-6 months, with our first stop booked in Tuscany, Italy. 

It looks like we did not pick the best countries to travel to when it came to the COVID-19 outbreak, right?. Here is how we stand in regard to each of these stops and what actions we are taking.

For Japan – Our original plan was to experience the cherry blossoms with my parents between Osaka, Kyoto, and Tokyo. Japan is currently classified as a Level 2 country by the CDC and we are currently in the process of canceling this leg of our trip. Although we are not particularly worried about ourselves, our parents are in the age range that is of concern and we don’t want to take any chances with them. Plus, we don’t want to have any trouble entering the US and future countries that we will be traveling to. Since we are nomadic, we have the ability to be anywhere in the world at any time and it isn’t the best time for Japan right now. Instead, we are looking to extend our stay here in Bali by another month which will give us more peace of mind and we can enjoy the warm weather and get plenty of Vitamin D!

For getting back to the US – We’ve been traveling to Thailand, Malaysia, Vietnam, and Indonesia and there currently aren’t restrictions that would prevent us from entering the US (or being put in quarantine as it is the case from people coming back from China or Iran). We will keep monitoring this situation as we get close to our return date. Since we plan to stay with Mrs. NN’s parents, we also want to make sure we stay in a country where the virus isn’t widely spread before heading back to the US.

For Italy – We planned a month to Tuscany, Italy in June as part of our European trip. Italy is currently classified as a Level 3 country by the CDC and we are considering canceling this stop if the situation does not improve. We mostly don’t want to be banned from entering other countries after being in Italy. Since this trip is a few months away, we are monitoring the situation and staying in touch with our AirBnB host. We are confident that both our AirBnB and airline tickets would be refunded if the situation doesn’t get better and we would then pick a different destination in Europe. 

Any other advice?

Below are some additional pieces of advice from some of the resources I pulled from the web while writing this article. As we said in our disclaimer earlier, we are not doctors or scientists, so please use this for educational purposes only and use your own judgment before taking (or not taking) any actions. 

Update: As of 3/12/2020 I’ve updated this list below with additional resources that provide great insights into the current situation:

• (Added on 3/12) Coronavirus: Why we must act now! Great piece to gain a better understanding on how far behind we are on our statistics and why we need to take distancing serious immediately
• (Added on 3/9) The Joe Rogan Experience: #1349 Michael Osterholm Michael is an internationally recognized expert in infectious disease epidemiology. He is Regents Professor, McKnight Presidential Endowed Chair in Public Health, the director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy
• Prevention and Treatment page from the CDC website.
• Cash could be spreading the coronavirus. The World Health Organization (WHO) said that people “should wash their hands or use a hand sanitizer after handling money, especially if they are about to eat or before handling food.
• Sunshine is the best source of Vitamin D. So don’t forget to get yourself 30 minutes of sun exposure if you don’t want to supplement with 1000mg of Vitamin D each day. If you travel extensively, aim for warm-weather countries as flu-type viruses don’t really strive with such weather. 

What about cancellation policies?

While public health and safety are at the top of everyone’s mind, getting money back after spending hundreds or thousands of dollars into travel booking expenses is also stressful. Here is what we learned about cancellation policies in the context of COVID-19. 

AirBnB

First of all, if you have a booking with AirBnB, check the regular cancellation policy you are under as you might be able to get a full refund (including the service fee) that way.

If this isn’t the case, then AirBnB can override the host cancellation policy for any booking made to China, South Korea or Italy. (Check the AirBnB Coronavirus information and extenuating circumstances policy for more details)

For other countries, it is on a case by case basis. Here is the reply I got from AirBnB about our bookings in Japan:

Good day! I appreciate you reaching out to us to help you out. I understand that there are circumstances that are far beyond our control. Let me help you out with your concern.

In order for me to be able to override the cancellation policy of your host and process a full refund, please submit any of the following documents:
– Flight cancellation
– Flight rescheduling
– News article documents regarding travel ban from US to Japan

Mr. NN, if you have any of it, please take a screenshot or take a photo of it and reply to this message attaching the photo. At the moment, based on research there is no travel ban yet from US to Japan. Though it is being considered. It should be a travel ban and not travel advisory.”

Our AirBnB Customer Representative

We are providing them with our documentation about our trip because we did have a flight cancellation and hoping for a full refund. Japan also happens to be our most expensive booking for our 2nd year of nomadic travel so it’s particularly important for our budget 🙂

Updates:

• As of 3/13/2020, AirBnb is making it extremely easy for people with booking at are between 3/14 and 4/14 to get a full refund easily one. (source)
• As of 3/9/2020 Airbnb was understanding and provided us with a full refund (~$2,400) on our Japan bookings! We found their customer service approach to this situation very fair and smooth. We were already big fans of Airbnb and now we are even more confident in using Airbnb as our primary accommodation source! (Check out our ultimate guide to AirBnB to learn how to save up to 50% on travel accommodation).

Airlines

Similar to AirBnB, most airlines will automatically refund you for any trip booked to China, South Korea and Northern Italy. Some airlines will also waive the change fee for most of their bookings (like United Airlines who recently introduced a no change fee for new bookings). As of now, my parent’s Air France flights to Japan are non-refundable but we are trying to figure out if we can at least get a credit. We currently have a United flight to Florence, Italy using miles that does not qualify for a full refund but United just charges a $150 change fee. We will inquire if we can get that change fee waived but if not, the change fee is reasonable. Every airline has their own policy regarding the CoV-19, so check their website for details. 

Updates:

• As of 3/11/2020 Delta airlines was able to fully refund our flight From Tokyo to SFO (this included getting our miles back + the money we spent on our tickets).
• As of 3/10/2020 Air France mentioned that we could give us a gift card (valid one year) for the entire amount of money we spent on our flight for my parents from France to Japan due to the outbreak. The downside is that they said the refund process can take up to 3 months!

Our Bottom line

The CoV-19 situation is really unfortunate but we are not panicking and will continue to travel as long as it is safe for us. We happened to have 2 high-risk countries, Japan and Italy, in our travel plans and we will likely shift some plans for peace of mind and for concern of exposing our parents to the virus. The benefit of being nomadic is that we are flexible and can choose where we want to be at any given time. The various travel refund policies are a bit stressful to navigate but overall, the airline companies and AirBnb have been understanding and we will see how things play out. 

We aso empathize with people whose livelihoods depend on tourism and are struggling because of the current fear of travel. If you have plans to travel to a country not on the CDC risk list and you are generally healthy, consider moving forward with your plans and you will also get the benefit of enjoying your destination without the usual hordes of tourists. In general, we feel confident in our health, optimistic about the future and look forward to continuing to see the world in 2020.

What about you? How do you perceive this pandemic from where you are currently? Are you comfortable with this pandemic or are you really worried? Please share your thoughts by leaving a comment in the comments section below.