Current COVID situation - anyone traveling soon and is the current uptick making you reconsider?

An uptick is to be expected with the removal of many public health measures. You can’t really tell much about future trends yet.

We leave for our month long trip in about 5 weeks, so yes, we are watching carefully. Don’t expect to change our plans, but you never know. There is some concern that the uptick is due to the subvariant of Omicron. Add in massive refugees crowding together with aid volunteers, reduction of health mandates in many countries, and waning immunity from the booster, and you have a real likelihood of case increases. Mostly I’m paying attention to whether a second booster is going to be authorized.

We also limited the number of museums we are visiting in favor of outdoor options such as skipping the Louvre, but booked the Eiffel Tower. Boboli Gardens, Vatican gardens, Tivoli, etc. we will of course still have indoor exposures but will mask up and try to be as conscientious as possible.

I travelled in November, but I felt quite safe because of all the vaccination/testing/masking requirements. Now that those are being removed, I feel less safe. I'm not yet planning to cancel my upcoming May trip, but I'm keeping an eye on things. In the meantime, I've ordered a big package of N95 masks and plan on using them. I know they work. On our trip from Venice to London, we were exposed (we were notified that we had been a close contact), but we wore our masks and didn't get sick. More recently, my 86-year-old mother in law had Covid, and my husband went to look after her, because she lives alone in another city. He wore N95 masks and took other precautions (exhaust fan on, window cracked open in the room where he slept), and he didn't get sick and didn't bring it home to me. (We masked around one another for a couple of days until he'd had more than one negative test.)

I've bought some of those face shields to use for eating on the plane, as that's the only time I'll remove my mask.

I recently returned from 10 days in Italy, visiting several cities, including Rome, Florence and Venice. Our CDC vaccination cards were very valuable, (we had pictures in our phones) and were requested by restaurants, hotels, museums and used in our train travels. Most of the time, our cards were scrutinized for all three doses. Masks(FFP-2) were required (2/23-3/05) for any activity. They are pretty strict. We lost our place in the Vatican Museum line when they didn't accept the type of mask we wore. (souvenir vendors nearby have the correct masks available for 2 euros). Ultimately, there were no problems and I would go back tomorrow if I could!

not sure if I'd rely for my health and the health of others on a mask sold by a street vendor - the same guys who sell fake handbags, flimsy umbrellas and light up toys.

Yes nobody wants to see an uptick especially if you're visiting soon.

But some things to consider:

If the UK, France, and others continue to open up their country to tourists, I'd bet Italy is likely to do the same to reel those tourists in, even with the current uptick. The countries know the high tourist season is coming.

True you said 80k cases, and that's a lot, but how many deaths? How many hospitalizations? Last time I looked it was very miniscule. As long as those two stay down, I think it'll be ok.

We leave in 6 weeks for France. Omicron is not finished with us yet. With that in mind we are planning to mostly eat outside at restaurants and in our hotel room with take out. We plan to still mask with N95/99 Canadian made masks when on the plane (British Airways has now made masking optional and although we aren’t flying with them we are prepared other airlines may follow soon), train, bus or in stores. My spouse has health issues so we must remain vigilant but we also don’t want to stay home indefinitely.