Covid in South America

[Rami077]

We are scheduled to cruise in South America on Jan 2, 2021.  The reports of the virus in South America grow by the day.  Will the ports be open and will it be safe to travel?

[clo]

Unfortunately I think your question isn't answerable. I just read that SPAIN has disallowed all cruise ships until further notice. And that's Spain and Europe.  I just looked at Brazil and they have 50,000 deaths a million cases. And a president who doesn't give a doo-doo. We love S. America but wonder if we'll ever return.

[Lunenburg]

Here in Uruguay we have only had 24 deaths and 850 cases. Currently there are only about 12 active cases. The border with Brazil is closed although there are still a few flights leaving here either through Sao Paulo or Santiago for non residents wishing to leave. There are still a few Uruguayans wanting to return and they are being tested and quarantined on their return.

 

I am very impressed how things are going here, schools are slowly going back, many shops are now open with most requiring face masks and today they are allowing events to start up with strict regulations. I even managed to make a hair appointment for next week!

 

The government is anxious to open to tourism but worried about exposing us all to a new outbreak. The original cases here were from a woman fashion designer who went to Madrid and on return here although not feeling well went to a big wedding and infected a number of people including a doctor from another city who then spread it there.

They are doing a lot of testing here  - the latest case was a health worker in Treinta y Tres and now twenty people who were in contact with her are in quarantine just in case.

 

 

[Mercruiser]

We have an Argentina, Uruguay, Chile cruise booked on January 20. Even though this particular cruise does not go to Brasil, I am getting less optimistic that cruise lines will be operating their South America cruise itineraries this season. Have a look at the Covid projections for Brasil by the University of Washington - they are not encouraging at all:
https://covid19.healthdata.org/brazil

Cruise lines cannot feasibly run their South America season if Brasil is off limits. 

Edited June 21, 2020 by Mercruiser

[SplashOfWater]

We have a South America cruise booked for January 29th and we too are concerned that the virus will not be under control in South America by then. We are reluctant to book flights to Buenos Aires not knowing if we'll be cruising there or not. Our cruise final payment date is October 1st so we'll hang in there for a while and see what happens. As a back-up we've booked the same cruise for 2022.

[Lunenburg]

34 minutes ago, akmarshall said:

We have a South America cruise booked for January 29th and we too are concerned that the virus will not be under control in South America by then. 

 

I am not sure the US is doing any better than down here according to the WHO. 

 

                                               Total cases    and    # last  24 hours           Total deaths and             last24 hrs.        

 

Edited June 21, 2020 by Lunenburg

[Mercruiser]

I agree that the USA should be doing a lot better. But I don't find comparisons of total cases to be useful when comparing countries of vastly different populations. I prefer to look at cases per million , which adjusts for population. I also look more at deaths than diagnosed infections because countries vary widely on how much testing they do per million population. Deaths are harder to ignore.

 

One of the better web sites is https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/daily-covid-deaths-per-million-7-day-average?country=ARG~BRA~CHL~USA~URY

As can be seen, Brazil and Chile death rates are very high. In contrast, Argentina and Uraguay have very low death rates from Covid. The USA death rate was very high but has been decreasing.

[TeeRick]

It is hard to compare positive case numbers without a good idea of what testing is in place and what type of testing is required in each country.

[Budget Queen]

3 hours ago, TeeRick said:

It is hard to compare positive case numbers without a good idea of what testing is in place and what type of testing is required in each country.

Absolutely-    reported and actual,  are 2 totally unrelated data points.   '

 

Speculation is pretty useless.   It will be a wait and see-  when time passes.   

[Rami077]

Anyone from South America who can update us on the present COVID situation?  Our Jan 2021 cruise was cancelled and am wondering if January 2022 will be any better.

[slewis7]

We are scheduled on a South America for late February 2022.  I feel that this going is unlikely.

[dreamercruise]

On 2/17/2021 at 9:15 AM, slewis7 said:

We are scheduled on a South America for late February 2022.  I feel that this going is unlikely.

Have you cancelled or rebooked to 2023?  I am starting to wonder if we should also cancel.  Hard to believe that when I booked this cruise in summer 2020, I was confident that the COVID situation would be well under control by Feb 2022.  Now, with the scary news about several new strains and the out-of-control situation in Brazil, things seem to be just as uncertain as back then when the lockdown began in March 2020.  Even after I get the vaccine, I am not sure if I can be well protected while in South America.  Key question is when to make the call to cancel.  Anyone else is also contemplating about cancelling early (1st half) 2022, South America cruises?

[slewis7]

8 hours ago, dreamercruise said:

Have you cancelled or rebooked to 2023?

No, as my final payment is not due until late August.  We will probably starting thinking about it in early summer

[Heartfelttraveler]

An interesting data point to research is how many total deaths on the USA each year for the last ten years.

[ALD18]

Watching this thread intently.  We are booked for January 2, 2022 and each week I am less and less confident I want to go.  Not sure I want to endure ALL the rules and regulations that will probably still be in place both at home and all the entry ports.  I agree with all the imposed safety measures, but concerned it will take all the fun out of the trip abiding by them.  Might push it off another year and hope for the best, but I'm not getting any younger:(

[Heartfelttraveler]

We are scheduled R/T from Buenos Aires in January 2022.  This is a trip that has been postponed a few times because of COVID.

 

I am willing to endure pre-trip testing, vaccinations (we are currently fully vaccinated), mask, ship only excursions (not an issue for this trip) and anything else thrown at us to "keep us safe."

 

It is a long flight to BA (10ish hours), but it is a red eye and we will sleep through it with our masks on.

 

The world may never be the same, but we will still want to see as much of it as we can.