Have you (or someone you know) tested positive for Covid while on a trip?

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nwscubamom

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Have you, or anyone you know, tested positive for Covid while you were on a trip?
If so, what did you (or they) have to do -
  • Where did you have to isolate, and for how many days?
  • Was the expense terrible?
  • Did you have any reimbursement from travel insurance?
 
i dont know anyone personally that this has happened to. but i have read some details from others who have.
for st maarten for example, people entering the country must purchase an inexpensive insurance.
if they test positive, they are moved to a predetermined hotel. the room is covered and the meals are delivered to them. they must remian in isolation for a period of time. not 100% sure but i think it is 7 to 10 days?
it gets interesting when someone is travelling as a couple with two kids and one of the kids tests positive. now what?
the kids room and food is covered. but one of the parents obviously would need to stay. the parents expenses would not be covered unless they have their own personal policy that might cover it.
but now you have split the family. one parent and one kid stays. the other parent and kid head home.
not ideal.
i would like to know what happens with the parents job when they call in and say they are stuck in another country for at least another week.
 
The CDC has lower the isolation requirement for asymptomatic covid positive Americans to 5 days. I wonder if this applies to Americans traveling abroad that test positive on the US entry test.
 
The CDC has lower the isolation requirement for asymptomatic covid positive Americans to 5 days. I wonder if this applies to Americans traveling abroad that test positive on the US entry test.
As far as I understand how quarantining abroad works, unless the country you're in has its own requirement, the number of days you quarantine is up to you. How would the US authorities know how long a person quarantined before returning to the US? All that an airline requires you to show before boarding is a negative result of a test taken within the past 1 day. Even when 10 days was the CDC guidance, I would imagine it did not stop people from re-testing daily until they got a negative result. Personally, I would feel comfortable giving it five days. Maybe re-test on the fifth day and plan to travel home on the sixth day.
 
It just happened to me... We left home on Dec 25, and were supposed to return on Jan 1. We finally made it home Jan 15.

Dive trip to the Bahamas. People started testing positive mid week. By the end of the week, we all had it.
For my fellow travellers that only needed a negative rapid antigen test... they flew home as soon as they were negative.

For us Canadians, we needed a negative PCR test within 72 hours of departure, OR a positive PCR from between 11 and 180 days ago. At $150-$200 per PCR test, we opted to stay until our 2 weeks were up.
Ended up in Airbnbs for two weeks. We had brought work and school computers, so my daughter and I were able to set up something of an office. Since I work from home, and her classes were online for January, it was no big deal-- we could do that from anywhere with a decent Internet connection.

The $40 Bahamian Health Visa ended up being a godsend. Our claim under our regular travel insurance was not allowed because the Gov't of Canada had issued a blanket travel advisory not to travel. The Health Visa includes up to $500 per day for food and lodging. We have submitted everything and am just waiting on the claim now. Total claim will end up being a bit over $3000.

If we had not planned for the possibility of it happening, it would have been a much bigger pain than it ended up being. Being able to work and do school from Nassau made it much less stressful. Knowledge of our additional coverage through the health visa also made it easier.

Thankfully, our symptoms were all mild and we were asymptomatic a few days after our respective positive tests. I think it was more stressful for family and friends at home who were never quite sure if we were as OK as we kept saying we were...
 
Where we you staying that everyone got it?
 
Where we you staying that everyone got it?
We were diving on the Aqua Cat. Two crew tested positive on the Wednesday during their daily tests.

My daughter and a few other passengers tested positive Wednesday afternoon when they ramped up passenger testing. At that point, I knew we were going to be having our tip extended.

I did not test positive until we were off the boat on Jan 2, and was the last passenger to test positive. Out of all the passengers and crew, I believe that 2 crew never tested positive, and the only 2 passengers to never test positive had just had COVID at US Thanksgiving.

In all, the folks at AquaCat were pretty amazing in helping us get set up at the Airbnb and checked on us regularly to facilitate any travel documents for those returning early and providing transport. As we missed a day and a half of diving, they also issued everyone a credit towards a future trip (no expiry).

I will likely hold off using the credit (or any other international travel for that matter) until the pandemic subsides a bit. We were lucky that it was not a bigger pain in the but than it was, but it was enough of a pain in the butt that I do not want to go through it again.
 
Our claim under our regular travel insurance was not allowed because the Gov't of Canada had issued a blanket travel advisory not to travel.
First, glad you are all okay. :)

Few destinations have something comparable to the Bahamian Health Visa that apparently insures your quarantine accommodation costs. Your comment above about Canada's advisory leads me to wonder whether the same would be true of the US. There are many destinations the US designates "Level 4-Do not travel." I have cautiously taken a few trips in the past year and a half, buying travel insurance with the hope it would cover quarantine costs. It could all be for naught.
 
First, glad you are all okay. :)

Few destinations have something comparable to the Bahamian Health Visa that apparently insures your quarantine accommodation costs. Your comment above about Canada's advisory leads me to wonder whether the same would be true of the US. There are many destinations the US designates "Level 4-Do not travel." I have cautiously taken a few trips in the past year and a half, buying travel insurance with the hope it would cover quarantine costs. It could all be for naught.
Thanks! We recovered quickly, but do still have a lingering cough. Could have been much worse.

Definitely something to be thoroughly familiar with before departing on any trip right now! Know exactly what your coverage is before getting on the plane, and have some kind of plan in the event that something were to happen.

I was impressed by their Health Visa program, and it may well be unique among destinations. It seemed a bit of a nuisance when getting ready to depart, but it was no more of a nuisance that the ArriveCAN stuff we had to do to come home, and I now see it as a huge advantage for people travelling in uncertain times.

The Bahamian Health Visa coverage actually seems better than our original insurance in that the Bahamian program covers up to $500 per day, while the other only covered to $300 per day (had the advisory not been issued). The coverage that we bought would have kicked in had we tested positive and were not able to leave Canada.

The Airbnb options allowed us to sit in the yard, enjoy a pool, and (as we felt better) take walks around the neighbourhood to take in the gardens, etc. Definitely better that being stuck in a hotel room for 2 weeks...
 
Thought I would come back to this thread and post an update now that things are officially wrapped up...
As a recap, my daughter and I were on a Bahamas Liveaboard for the last week of December. Mid week, positive COVID tests started popping up, and it quickly made its wasy through the entire boat.
We ended up quarantining for an extra two weeks in AirBnB's until we met Canada's requirements to return home.

The added insurance that the Bahamas Health Visa offers was definitely helpful, but it was definitely not without massive headaches.

It is definitely insurance on Island time... It has taken five MONTHs to resolve our claim. They initially tried to deny about half of our claim. THey do not respond to emails whatsoever. If I wanted questions answered (eg why are they denying half the claim?), only phone calls got any type of response. Eventually, the claim was reassessed, and we were reimbursed in full at the end of May. Others on the trip (who actually filed their claim before me) are still waiting for reimbursement, altough their reassessment is now back in their favour, so their reimbursement should be coming soon.

Our total came to about US$3,500. Reimbursement did come eventually, but it took a LONG time with a lot of self-advocacy to be sure we were fairly reimbursed.
 
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