New Level 4 Travel Advisory and February trip still going?!!!!

I understand the CDC making places level 4 BUT if only they would designate places in the US as "levels".  I'm not sure where you are from but to me Italy looks much better than where I live (North Idaho). I think 5 may be the highest level and Idaho would have been a 5 from the get-go of the pandemic.

Italy - total vaccination rate as of Dec 22 - 85.4% and they've just started doing kids under 12.  (lag time of updated stats due to holidays)

• Italy: vaccination rate COVID-19 age group 2021 | Statista (hilbert.edu)

As of Dec - total amount of Covid ICU cases in Tuscany - 61 (total area population 3.7 million)

• Italy: coronavirus patients in ICU by region 2021 | Statista (hilbert.edu)

My county in Idaho - 41% fully vaxxed - statewide I think it's about 50%

My county in Idaho - 45 people in ICU beds (total county population - about 170,000)

I'm giving you the link to the NY Times statistics dashboard.  You may have to sign up with your email to access but I wanted to show you what I was using for reference as it's better than the piecemeal websites.

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/us/kootenai-idaho-covid-cases.html

I am watching Europe carefully as I've got an international program in Belgium and The Netherlands for April.  At the current time The Netherlands has a 10 day quarantine in place for anyone arriving from the US which will be impossible to manage. Plus they announced it 12/29 during the day to go into effect at 00:01 on 12/30 so no notice was given. I was able to hit a good travel bubble in the Fall before Omicron and did a program in France.  It was not required but I wore an N95 mask ALL the time - indoors, outdoors, on the RS bus.  I took enough masks to cover me for my entire trip plus a few extra.

I'm not being dismissive of your concerns and I would also say each person has to evaluate their own travel risk.  Traveling during a pandemic IS taking a risk and not everyone can do it.  I'd also say to look further into the data to evaluate on your own as to what the situation is on the ground in certain areas.

Hope we all get to travel freely soon!

~Pam

Level 4 is the highest.

Hello!

We're thrilled you're joining this program to Italy!

At this time your program is scheduled to operate as planned.

• Road Scholar is monitoring any situation that could affect our programs and closely working with our partners on the ground.
• The safety and well-being of our participants remains our primary concern, and we will continue to closely monitor any situation that is or may arise.
• Be assured that we are prepared to make immediate changes either prior to departure or during the program as circumstances warrant. In the event of any changes to your program we will contact you immediately with the details.

We plan to operate any program that we can deliver the quality experience that we promised. We will cancel a program if there are restrictions imposed that would impact our group or if we can no longer visit a major highlight.

We have been in consultation with an infectious disease medical expert who has reviewed all of our safety policies and protocols.
Our Health & Safety Roadmap: https://www.roadscholar.org/practical-information/general-health-safety/safety-protocols/. 

We will continue to offer and run programs in countries designated level 4 if:

• The country was designated level 4 due to the pandemic (was not level 4 before the pandemic).
• There will be access to COVID-19 testing in-country.
• There will be access to medical facilities in-country.
• COVID-19 cases continue to be low in-country.

Please feel free to call us at 877-426-8056 or email us at contact@roadscholar.org if you have any questions or concerns.

Warmly,
Melissa W.