Red Sea (Egypt) closed (covid-19 confined)

[Blackcrusader]

We have pushed back our May dives to October in the Red Sea, I hope things may have got clearer by then, but Egypt is not known for good governance. K

I have a July trip planned so far only paid airline bookings did not pay resorts but my friend and I may push that back to later on in the year or even postpone to next year. We had planned on diving Leyte and Bohol in Philippines December January but that is on the wish list nothing booked yet.

 

[Harry Kreigh]

There is an Italian group stuck in the Red Sea outside Port Sudan, unable to dive or leave the boat. They must get to Khartoum (at their own expense) for evacuation.

Don't be stupid and try to travel! Cancel the trip.

 

[Adr1an]

Take the 50% and run for your life and Do not pass go, do not enter Egypt. Nobody knows the real situation there as the media is muzzled. Egypt just kick out the Guardian reporters who questioned the low number of infections claiming the math does not add up.

Actually what happened there is that one Guardian reporter who instead of actually reporting from Egypt was reporting estimations and extrapolations made by a Canadian research institute was asked to leave the country. Egypt forces Guardian journalist to leave after coronavirus story | Egypt | The Guardian

I'm not a supporter of muzzling the press but this kind of "reporting" is damn close to activism. If you're posted in a country do your damn job and do some actual reporting from that country...

P.S. Of course it would be crazy to travel right now. Coronavirus isn't much of a threat for someone who is young and fit but the risk of finding yourself locked in a forced quarantine in less then pleasant conditions is huge.

 

[Sunn]

Well... read this : Coronavirus? It’s in God’s hands

the Hasidic community also say it's in the hands of god and reject the containment measures in Israel and in US... resulting in 8x more contamination ! Virus Soars Among Ultra-Orthodox Jews as Many Flout Israel’s Rules

It is not a matter of religion ! It's a pandemic disease that even developed countries can hardly manage ! Why do you think US has ordered 100.000 body bags for FEMA ?

As Adr1an said, don't be silly : no trip will be safe before monthes...

 

[Mike Walker]

Posting here as a bit of a public service... Hopefully it won't be silently moderated into oblivion like my last contribution....

I was in Egypt on Royal Evolution Mar 5 - 18.
We left under relatively calm circumstances.
We got back into port to find out the world had ended... thankfully Egypt let us back on land.
I made it to Cairo on an existing domestic flight but unfortunately I missed viable flights out of the country by about 12 hours.

Having spent an unexpected 1.5 weeks in Cairo (only finally getting out on a UK rescue flight this past Sunday) here are a few thoughts:
- The Egyptian government is doing about as well as any other country in trying to manage this (save for SK and China).
- The Egyptian population is being about as diligent and cooperative as citizens in other countries. That is: not nearly enough.
- In the time I was there it was actually quite good - no stupidity like hording TP, the shelves were full.
- This does not mean things will stay that way. My expectation is that things will get very bad very quickly in the next couple weeks.
- Lots of masks, lots of sanitizer, lots of dudes in 'ghostbusters' get ups spraying down everything.
- But it only takes a few idiots and despite best efforts there were also many individuals making no effort at all.
- Similarly much of what was being done was clearly for theatrics over efficacy.
- Frighteningly, there were lots of people hacking and coughing away everywhere. Far more than could be considered normal.
- The published numbers can't possibly be an accurate representation of reality. (as is the case everywhere)

When the opportunity came up I made the decision to GTFO.

When things are a little bit bad Egypt is a great place to be.
If things get really bad I would not want to be there. The support infrastructure will crumble.
My feeling is that things will get really bad before they get better.

I would not be considering booking anything non-refundable in Egypt before Fall and possibly even Spring 2021.

 

[Khrissi]

I have a July trip planned so far only paid airline bookings did not pay resorts but my friend and I may push that back to later on in the year or even postpone to next year. We had planned on diving Leyte and Bohol in Philippines December January but that is on the wish list nothing booked yet.

Flight prices did go up on our airline tickets by 50% K

 

[Adr1an]

I just bought my tickets for 24 days in Egypt in Dec-Jan 2021. Even if the virus is still around by that time, my guess is that the mass hysteria will be long over. And if a respiratory virus is around I'd rather spend time sunbathing at 20-22 degrees Celsius then at freezing temperatures back home.
Sure, it's worth saying that I paid very little money for the tickets, if we were talking about 5-700$ pp I'd be more cautious of course.

 

[ontdiver]

I just bought my tickets for 24 days in Egypt in Dec-Jan 2021. Even if the virus is still around by that time, my guess is that the mass hysteria will be long over.

What is worrying at the moment is that we may be facing another two seasons of this - unless of course a vaccine is rolled out this fall. Absent a vaccine it may not be possible to get comprehensive travel insurance that does not exclude covid-19 as a known risk. We have already pulled the plug on a non-dive trip to Europe this coming September and fortunately are able to get full refunds for our travel points & associated taxes; accommodation and pre-paid excursions.

 

[a_lamonta]

Posting here as a bit of a public service... Hopefully it won't be silently moderated into oblivion like my last contribution....

I was in Egypt on Royal Evolution Mar 5 - 18.
We left under relatively calm circumstances.
We got back into port to find out the world had ended... thankfully Egypt let us back on land.
I made it to Cairo on an existing domestic flight but unfortunately I missed viable flights out of the country by about 12 hours.

Interesting post Mike, I was supposed on the be on the March 19 trip of that same boat. Given that airports were closing March 19th at noon, I was wondering if the trip before came back early and were able to get out.

 

[Mike Walker]

Interesting post Mike, I was supposed on the be on the March 19 trip of that same boat. Given that airports were closing March 19th at noon, I was wondering if the trip before came back early and were able to get out.

We did complete the itinerary as planned though the crew found out they all had no jobs a couple days before completion.
With the arrangements to cross the Sudan border in both directions I suspect there was very little room for last minute schedule adjustments.
Cell signal is very intermittent and we were only getting bits and pieces of information until we got close enough to populated areas on shore the evening before we returned to port.

I will say the boat, crew and on-shore management were excellent through the whole process (and for the trip itself). Pretty much everything was sorted before we even got back on land and they made some sensible adjustments to peoples return plans to increase their odds of catching flights. I believe all the others on the boat got home quickly (I was the only one not going back to Germany/Switzerland).

All in all it was a great trip and I hope they can get back in operation as soon as things clear up.
However, as mentioned, my feeling is Egypt is still a long way from their peak.
They are trying to isolate the tourist areas ASAP though and might succeed by drastically limiting access.
But they can't control the tourists coming in unless they plan to quarantine and attempt rapid tests on everybody.

Cairo... there's no way that's going to end well.
Too much density and for every person fully on board with best practices there are 10 that don't know or don't care.