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Prepare for the worst

I just finished a 2 week tour of Greece (not RS). On the last day in Athens, the tour company arranged for everyone to get a covid test (at our expense of course). We had 14 people on our tour plus the tour director. Nice and small. The tour wasn't great, the tour director wasn't great either, but that's another story.

Seven of my fellow passengers (half the group) plus the tour director tested positive for covid. Yours truly, fortunately, tested negative.

The tour company arranged to have our farewell dinner delivered by room service. On the room service tray was a letter explaining what happened.

Now, before you ask what happened to the people who tested positive, well, I don't know. For privacy reasons they couldn't tell me who they were.

Opa.

Posted by
8340 posts

Frank, I am glad you were negative. I completely agree with you that people should realize that their trip could take an unexpected turn and have thought through the options in advance. The time to start thinking about what to do next is not when you are isolated in a hotel room.

Posted by
1819 posts

Frank, did your tour require N94/95 masks on board the bus and other smaller indoor enclosed places? If so, did they enforce it.

Posted by
302 posts

"I just finished a 2 week tour of Greece (not RS)."
Wondering how carefully you N95-d on your return home, as well as if you have tested yourself again?
That's a lot of close contacts for you to then potentially expose others as you travelled home. I also wonder about protocol on the tour, vaccine requirements, etc.
Our local case counts (and assuming it's way underreported) are steeply on the rise, including in my workplace.

Posted by
14940 posts

Greek law required masks indoors. The tour insisted on masks on the coach. (Not specifically N95's.) We had to show our vaccination certificates with photo id everywhere. Everyone on the tour had to be fully vaccinated and boosted.

I'm still traveling in Europe so I'll monitor for symptoms.

The tour had one "cougher" and I'll bet she was the one.

I'm now in Stockholm and there is no mask requirement. In fact, people were looking at me strangely wondering why I was wearing one.

Posted by
491 posts

My partner coughs frequently - its fine - heart disease is not infectious

Posted by
8340 posts

I understand the cougher issue. I cringe these days when people cough near me. I can't help it.

It is true that some blood pressure medications have a side effect of causing the person to cough and it is also allergy season. The easy thing to do is if a person is coughing, they just slip on a mask around others regardless of the reason for the cough. It is a courteous thing to do.

Posted by
1069 posts

It was individuals blowing their nose that caught my attention. Interesting that we now notice things that probably wouldn't have gotten our attention prior to covid. Welcome the return of colds and flu which appear worse this year than in prior years. I choose to tell myself that all that coughing and nose blowing around me was allergies or just the common cold :)