A traveller’s worst nightmare: Testing positive for COVID-19

A traveller’s worst nightmare: Testing positive for COVID-19

Late last year, Jose Arellano, a U. S. Navy veteran, and his wife, Gloria, traveled 2, 000 miles from home to the resort town of Oaxaca, Mexico, to use up about $400 in plane tickets they had purchased at the start of the pandemic. The couple used masks, face shields and disinfectant, but not even a week into the trip, Jose Arellano, 56, who had asthma, and then Gloria Arellano, 54, began to get headaches and run a fever. They had both contracted the coronavirus and were battling it in a place where they had no doctors or health insurance and no nearby family or friends to offer support. There is no way of knowing how many people have been infected with the virus on a trip, but one insurance provider, Seven Corners, has had 2, 000 claims filed for related illnesses since June, said the company's president, Jeremy Murchland. And, one medical evacuation business said it has averaged three flights a month for those with the coronavirus since the start of the pandemic. Only 10% of the U. S. population is fully vaccinated, but more people are travelling than at any time in the past year. Most will return