Agh. Panic.

There are many conversations on just this here. Scroll some and you will see what I mean.

Probably not in the Germany forum. Try the All Topics view, here.

We are scheduled to travel to Germany for two weeks starting in mid April. We are having doubts. I believe Germany will handle the virus as least as well as the USA. The problem in my mind is that we would be spending most of our time in public places including traveling on trains, increasing our exposure both to the illness and to disruptions of train service due to possible virus cases. Plus quarantines are a possibility as you mentioned.

We are giving ourselves til mid March to decide. I am following the news on Deutsche Welle News and a Dbahn travel website. I do not want panic but I also do not want us to become part of the problem.

Along with RS Webmaster recommendations mentioned see rapidly evolving reliable updated information at www.cdc.gov.

I now travel with a 12 hour decongestant and also prescription cough suppressant gel caps as I fly weekly on business. My fear is some PITA passenger alerting a flight attendant that he saw me sneeze or blow my nose and fears the coronavirus. I fear being kept in isolation from morons like that. Such people probably fear Corona beer too.

For my flight to Zürich in 6 weeks, I’ll pack a month’s worth of my diabetic meds just in case there is a quarantine.

I really despise this manic panic. This global panic is irrational. That all said, maybe I should pack a month’s worth of meds on my business trip tomorrow given how the media and politicians are going ballistic to suit their goals. Yup, you can tell I’m fed up with this.

I did scroll and saw nothing. That is why I asked.

As far as panic...that's just it. I'm not afraid of getting it. Just dont want to be stuck somewhere.

I’m not sure any country knows how to deal with the Coronavirus. I’m not even sure the US is dealing with it well. We boast we have only 70 cases nationwide but we have tested only about 500 people nationwide. Italy with 1/6 of the US population has already tested 15,000.

Cases in Germany doubled last night (March 1) and they are growing, so we don’t know where we will stand in 2 weeks. If the situation is still safe to go then, I would rent a car, avoid big cities, and make it a countryside/small town adventure. Also inquire where the Coronavirus outbreak clusters are, and stay away from those regions.

We are doing the castles... so renting a car and staying in small areas.

My main concern is getting stuck and also people in panic and not being able to find food (I have a gluten allergy). Considering changing plans to Scotland.

We are in the exact same situation. We are in good health, in our 40s, with two kids that will be with us. Not afraid of getting virus at all. But this panic happening, sights closing, quarantines etc is what has me concerned. We are using trains, buses. Starting in Munich and heading to Salzburg and Prague. We depart March 25. We will wait until March 14 (when more of our fees kick in if we cancel) to see what happens over the next two weeks. I know I’m not answering your question at all..just my thoughts.

I was supposed to be in Northern Italy in Late April/Early May. I've replaced it with Germany. I'm going.

Again, not an answer, just thoughts. We have plans, tickets, reservations etc. for the Czech Republic (mostly small towns south of Prague) for me and Budapest for both of us mid April to May 2nd. We land in Amsterdam before conecting flights to either Prague or Budapest. We are watching the news closely. So far the Czech Republic has three cases all tied to Italy. I've seen no cases reported in Hungary yet.

We are in our mid to late 50s in good health and taking no meds for anything so getting the disease doesn't worry us too much. Possible quarantine and/or attraction closures does. So we are watching the news closely.

If our flights are cancelled we will recoup as best we can. If things look bad in Budapest, or but our flights are going we may rearrange our itinerary to visit smaller places in Hungary, skip Prague, or perhaps do another nearby county like Poland or Slovakia, instead. Or depending on what we can work out with Delta stop in Amsterdam.

But right now it's just too hard to predict.

My part of the country has active cases and I am sure that we are going to see more each day as they begin testing people who were previously not being tested. This quote was in the paper today:

Dr. Trevor Bedford, a genetic and infectious disease researcher at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and director of the Bedford Lab, said there may already be “a few hundred cases” of the virus in Washington, while suggesting that the virus has likely been spreading within the state’s population for up to six weeks.

I feel like I have at least as much risk getting the virus here as I would traveling in Europe.............

I'm scheduled to be in Berlin in late April/early May and Bavaria/Austria in mid/late May.

My plan is to go unless flights are cancelled or US says not to go.

My 2¢: Coronavirus will be everywhere by then. Either the world will be shut down, or the nations will decide there's little more to do than to shrug our collective shoulders, accept we have a viral respiratory illness with a death/complication rate somewhat higher than flu, and keep living as we normally do.

Here'e the REALLY scary part: the politicians get to decide.

I posted some information and websites on virus handling in Germany.
https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/general-europe/coronavirus-what-you-need-to-know

Easy to find.
- Open page
- Use search function with my user name (STRG + F / enter "MarkK").

Currently no issues to buy food and retailers are well prepared.

In Berlin we have the first "official" case since tonight - guess based on visitor base we have more undiscovered cases in the city.

In general people are aware but relaxed. Larger fairs are moved or cancelled, e. g. ITB 2020 or Light & Building 2020 this week. Larger events such as concerts and sports are well visited. If soccer stadions stay empty on a matchday then you need to be concerned about coming to Germany ;-)

Such people probably fear Corona beer too.

That's a good thing. That stuff is awful.

My wife was due to travel to Cologne this week for work however they've implemented a blanket ban on all travel for work. Whilst the company reimbursed her for the flight and hotel (she's a contractor so pays for it herself and claims expenses) the hotel resfused to refund the cancellation. Consequently I decided to go, change the booking name and have a few days exploring Cologne on my own (absolute bliss) however I came down with a cold over the weekend and my concern was being subjected to a temperature check and then quarantined because I was exhibiting some symptoms of Coronavirus. I decided that it wasn't worth the risk. A shame really as the flights were only £50.

Got an e-mail today from my employer today. I must notify the company of any international travel, and it will decide when I may return to work.

Yeah my friend and I are also monitoring the situation- scheduled to go to Germany on the 25th of this month-- spending most our time in- Cologne (3 days), Koblenz (1 day), heidelberg (3 days), Baden Baden (1 day) Strasbourg (1 day), Villigen-Schiwnigggen (3 days--i know terrible spelling but you get te picture) Fussen (3 days) and Munich (3 days)... I guess it depends if the USA initiates a travel ban and if our airline decides "ok we will refund people" -- I can still cancel all hotels up to the day before, so I'm not so concerned I always get refundable ones. But the flights total around $3200. I'm also a bit concerned about whole towns being shut down. I can go a few weeks without food if necessary (or just potato chips!) but I really want that pork knuckle!!!!!! My friend and I are massive germaphobes and I ordered n99 masks back in January for us, I have dozens of latex gloves, cleaning supplies (which we use like crazy people) so I'm not really worried about catching it except for maybe while eating (if someone sneezes in our food) or the last day we use public transport. We won't be using public transport the rest of the trip, driving around instead. Sigh. #CROSSINGFINGERS

I'm going to adjust my 2¢ based on the recently-released Report of the WHO-China Joint Mission on Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) and the video conference of the mission lead. The mission found that, at least in China, there was not an "iceberg" phenomenon where there were crazy numbers of asymptomatic, unidentified cases in the community with only a small proportion coming to the medical community's attention (based on one province's testing of 320,000 people). The mortality rate of specific subpopulations in China is quite remarkable (15% for people in their 80's, 8% for people in their 70's, 13% for people with cardiovascular disease, 9% for those with diabetes, 8% for those with hypertension).

I think my prior statement was probably a little too cavalier. Things may play out as I speculated, but there still does seem to be a significant role at this time for government's to take appropriate actions to try to limit the spread of the virus. Perhaps it's not so unreasonable for private citizens to make decisions that aid governments and world health officials in those efforts.

My work is saying 2 weeks off if from Italy. I just worry if I'm in England and they decide it's a level 3 while I'm there....agh

It is fully nonsense to declare countries as a whole risk area.

Also the institutes do not work that way (example RKI which defines only some regions in a country).