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Coronavirus: Singapore blocking transit and stays, Malta ban, Croatia ban

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Here is a quick lunchtime update of the latest countries to put blocks in place due to coronavirus.

Coronavirus and Singapore:

This does not currently cover the UK.

However, if you have a trip to Singapore planned, or a trip which TRANSITS in Singapore, you need to be on your guard.  It would be very surprising if the ban was not extended to the UK within a few days.

As of midnight on Sunday (ie Monday) you will not be allowed entry into Singapore – or to transit through Singapore – if you have visited Italy, France, Spain or Germany in the past 14 days.

There are already restrictions in place if you have visited China, Iran or South Korea.

The source document is here.

Keep an eye on that page for any addition of the UK to that list.

Coronavirus and Malta:

Malta is extending its quarantine rules to ALL incoming passengers.  UK travellers were previously exempt.

You and your entire immediate family MUST spend 14 days in quarantine upon arrival.

It is not clear if this is in place immediately or if it will only begin tonight or perhaps tomorrow.

The source document is here.

Coronavirus and Croatia:

This block DOES apply to UK travellers.

The Croatian Government is now imposing a 14 day quarantine period on all arrivals from the UK as well as France, Germany, Switzerland, Spain, Austria, Netherlands, China, the Republic of Korea, Japan and Singapore.  Other ‘hot spot’ countries were already blocked.

Source document (Foreign Office) is here.

Coronavirus and Argentina:

This block DOES apply to UK travellers.

Argentina has announced plans to suspend flights from Europe, and many other parts of the world, for 30 days.

The start date is not clear but the Foreign Office believes it will take effect from Monday 16th.

Source document here.

Note that Peru has put quarantine measures in place for arrivals, including transit passengers, from some countries although not, at present, the UK.  See the Foreign Office guidance here.

Category

General

Comments (73)

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

  • Colin MacKinnon says:
    13 Mar13 March 12:22

    Wife is due back from Denver next week – on a DEN-LHR-CDG ticket.

    Do people think Denver check-in will be happy to short-check any bags to LHR?

    She’d now like to dump the LHR-CDG leg and come straight back to Scotland, for obvious reasons as laid out above.

    Otherwise she may just go HBO and leave a bag with family in USA.

    • BJ says:
      13 Mar13 March 13:13

      This being BA I would go the HBO option and just skip the final leg rather than alert them to her intention in Denver. IIRC this is CW so she could get two decent sized bags on board.

      • Anna says:
        13 Mar13 March 13:21

        I was going to say much the same, she could even buy a 2nd wheelie case and pack as much stuff as possible in it.

        • BJ says:
          13 Mar13 March 14:14

          Also suggest she uses OLCI. While I would not expect her to have any issues with two bags in CW, it is still better to avoid the check in desk whenever possible, she doesn’t want to run into a bear with a sore one.

    • Adam says:
      13 Mar13 March 19:51

      I am currently in Toronto and was due to fly on to CDG from LHR as part of an Ex EU flight. BA have just cancelled my Paris to London flight so I intend to finish my trip in London. They have specified that you are able to change destination so I can’t seem them quibbling as this is beyond my control and I have no intention of being stranded in France!

  • Rich says:
    13 Mar13 March 12:52

    FCO is also advising against all but essential travel to Madrid + some parts of Northern Spain and Basque Country.

    • Roberto says:
      13 Mar13 March 12:59

      Its all a mess over here in spain with new rules at multiple times each day..

      Supposedly off to Cuba on Wednesday. Flights out still going ( and connecting via Mad ) but getting home might be an issue in a couple of weeks.

      • roberto says:
        13 Mar13 March 13:41

        Cruise ships not stopping in Spain as from today and Gib as from tomorrow.
        Shools out from toady for 14 days
        Government and local offices closing until April

        • Anna says:
          13 Mar13 March 14:36

          That’s probably no bad thing. Cruise ship passengers are a real risk. The Cayman Islands now have their first case of Coronavirus from an Italian (what was he even doing on a cruise?!!) passenger who was airlifted to hospital from a cruise ship suffering from heart problems then diagnosed after he’d been in hospital for several days.

  • marcw says:
    13 Mar13 March 12:55

    Just STOP/cancel/change/refund any non-essential travel. Soon there will be a list of “where can i travel in the current COVID-19 situation?”.

    • Renaud says:
      13 Mar13 March 14:45

      Looking at how things evolve now, China may well soon become the safest country. Too bad they probably won’t let any foreigners in once they’ve got rid of the virus.

  • NvT1115 says:
    13 Mar13 March 12:55

    Rob

    BBC news reporting all arrivals into Malta must quarantine for 14 days just now and showing on Maltese websites

  • Barry cutters says:
    13 Mar13 March 13:08

    Will self quarantine be a good reason to cancel travel?

    Brothers wife is self quarantined as per current advise . Due to fly to nyc on Monday .

    Will insure ande or airline -pay out or allow to cancel?

    • Anna says:
      13 Mar13 March 13:25

      I guess we’ll start getting definitive answers on this soon!

    • Rich says:
      13 Mar13 March 13:32

      Self-quarantine is Government advice.

      So if your insurance covers you for cancelling travel ‘on government advice’, you would be covered.

      My insurance (Amex Plat) neither specifically includes or excludes such a reason for not travelling. The closest would be illness

      “a) You, or a person travelling with You, or a person You are visiting for the main purpose of Your Trip, having an accident, suffering an unforeseen illness or dying before or during Your Trip;”

    • Rich says:
      13 Mar13 March 13:33

      MSE has done the legwork on this. I admit i haven’t read through it, as i don’t have any travel booked at the moment.

  • Algor says:
    13 Mar13 March 13:27

    Just landed in Gatwick from Dubrovnik, had fantastic time and missed quarantine by the skin of my teeth.

    All over Europe airports I’ve had temperate checks and interviews on recent travels. After landing in Gatwick not a single f… was given, through e gate and on the train to London, shocking.

    • Thomas Howard says:
      13 Mar13 March 13:53

      We’ll be fine, just 20% loss of lung function in a quarter of those that recover: https://news.yahoo.com/people-fully-recover-coronavirus-left-103917303.html

      • Shoestring says:
        13 Mar13 March 15:07

        that’s quite normal after pneumonia (and this is similar) – unrealistic to expect 100% lung function a few weeks after recovery

        I’m on 2 years later now (after severe pneumonia) and just about starting to get back to normal, age 57 – and that’s with loads of exercise

        younger people recover full function faster, middle aged more slowly, older people never

    • Alex says:
      13 Mar13 March 14:02

      UK Government’s chief scientific adviser admired this morning their strategy is to encourage the spread of the virus to 60% of the population. While other countries try to contain it and stop their people being infected….

      Basically a scientific experiment on a live population. Should be good for his former employers in big pharma

      • Ian says:
        13 Mar13 March 14:30

        It’s a perfectly decent strategy, and very well communicated.

        • Paul Pogba says:
          13 Mar13 March 14:53

          I’m not epidemiologist and have no qualification to question this, but if herd immunity to a virus thats similar to seasonal flu and the common cold is possible, why do we not have it against those illnesses? I’ve been led to believe that there will probably never be a universal vaccine against these viruses because they’re constantly mutating so the old antibodies are ineffective against the new reinvented virus.

          Treating us all as part of a wide scale experiment seems high risk to say the least.

          • marcw says:
            13 Mar13 March 15:23

            Agree.

          • Ian says:
            13 Mar13 March 15:29

            But it’s not a ‘wide scale experiment’, it’s a strategy designed to flatten out the peak so that our services can cope, and, eventually, we can develop immunity.

            It would also reduce the economic impact that may well be much more damaging than the health impact.

            Listen to the experts.

          • Nick says:
            13 Mar13 March 15:32

            For flu virus you have two phenomena:

            Antigenic shift
            Antigenic drift

            Both lead to ineffective long term immunity. Hence herd immunity and long term immunity does not develop against strains that undergo these two phenomena only the old strains.

            I am not sure if Coronavirus has these as they do not occur in all families of viruses.

          • Shoestring says:
            13 Mar13 March 15:34

            https://specials-images.forbesimg.com/imageserve/5e6b3f08aa5428000759bd33/960×0.jpg?fit=scale

          • Shoestring says:
            13 Mar13 March 15:40

            @Nick – but the older you get, the fewer times you catch the cold or flu

            I can’t really remember the time I had a bad case, maybe 15-20 years ago (age 57)

            it may not be perfect immunity if the viruses concerned are mutating every year or so – but it’s pretty good, you only get mild sniffles

          • Paul Pogba says:
            13 Mar13 March 16:08

            Every other expert in the developed world seems to believe that social distancing is the way to slow the spread, its unusual that our experts came to the opposite conclusion. My mind is boggled that the continuation of usual social contact which is the behavior thats feeding the near exponential growth of the virus will somehow defer the peak? It looks more like a strategy of trying to get it over and done with while the sheeple continue working.

            The hand washing strategy probably assisted with the desire to flatten the curve but business as usual makes no sense.

          • Shoestring says:
            13 Mar13 March 16:17

            @Paul Pogba – I think it’s just about getting the balance right – porridge making, not too hot, not too cold

            we do actually need about 60-70% of the population to get Covid-19 for the greater long-term good

            so you might disagree about the timing on no social contact – but you’re not in charge of the timing of when to close schools, limit big groups watching events etc – we delegate that responsibility to the scientists in this country (via top team politicians) & I guess they’re saying the best way to go slowly & steadily towards 60-70% is the current strategy

            people are free to self isolate (go into isolation from the rest of society) for a few weeks if they’re particularly worried (maybe justifiably if they’re high risk) about the risks, my father’s doing precisely that from next week but he’s 80 & unhealthy so I understand his perspective

          • Shoestring says:
            13 Mar13 March 17:26

            different perspective to my own, worth a read (all replies on the Twitter thread)
            https://twitter.com/globalhlthtwit/status/1238425621375651840

        • Shoestring says:
          13 Mar13 March 15:09

          @Ian – agreed

          very rational strategy that uses the mildness of Covid-19 to control the number of people getting it so that NHS can cope better and far fewer people will die

          • marcw says:
            13 Mar13 March 18:04

            Herd immunity works well when you have millions infected. At this stage, contention -> eradication. It works -> look at South Korea, Japan, Taiwan or Japan.

            But hey, UK strategy might work as well. We will only know in a few days/weeks.

          • Paul Pogba says:
            13 Mar13 March 21:41

            The lazy herd immunity do-nothing policy isn’t working particularly well in Iran and their average age is 31 v our 40. I’m not convinced.

          • Bagoly says:
            13 Mar13 March 22:53

            @Shoestring
            Re a) – government might see an advantage there, although reducing pension obligations could appeal in all countries.
            Perhaps the UK government particularly keen on a clear-out because there is a severe housing shortage, and this could roughly halve it?

          • Polly says:
            14 Mar14 March 09:21

            And possibly to lighten the care home liability load, whilst they are at it. But, would never be admitted.

      • Anna says:
        13 Mar13 March 14:40

        Great, let’s use our population as laboratory animals to test out this new virus. They don’t seem to have considered that emergency service staff are also part of the general population. So when some desperados break into your house in the middle of the night you will have no choice but to hand over your toilet rolls and baked beans because the local police will be busy being ill/isolated/developing herd immunity/dealing with other things. They can’t be drafted in from agencies either, once they’re out of action that’s it.

        • Stanley says:
          13 Mar13 March 15:54

          Just leave some spaghetti hoops and Kleenex on the door step, and sleep tight.

  • Lloyd says:
    13 Mar13 March 13:57

    Will be interested to know whether BA15 LHR-SIN-SYD is classed as a transit if you have booked LHR-SYD as a through ticket? I assume the authorities would class it as a transit on the basis you are deplaning even if just for a technical stop?

  • Pierre says:
    13 Mar13 March 13:58

    Peru is also banning all flights arriving from Europe and Asia. It is confirmed on the gov.uk site.

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