COVID-19 causes travel plan upheaval for Centre County residents, questions about insurance
Several weeks of growing coronavirus cases both domestically and abroad have shifted travel plans for many in Centre County, as fears loom of disease spread and getting stranded in airports.
Katie Confer, a second grade teacher at Young Scholars of Central PA, had to cancel a spring break trip to Italy with her husband as the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases and related deaths rose.
“We were not just concerned about getting sick even, but getting stuck,” she said.
Confer and her husband, both teachers, have spring break this week and didn’t think they could afford to miss work if they had been forced to self-quarantine in an airport abroad. They had planned to travel to both Rome and Venice, the latter of which was very close to the epicenter of the disease outbreak in the country.
Erica Kaufman, owner and founder of Lila Yoga Studio in State College, was about to walk through security at JFK Airport to catch a flight to India when she decided to cancel her trip.
She was headed to the International Yoga Festival set for March 1-7 in Rishikesh, India, an annual gathering of yoga teachers, scholars and scientists she called “an extraordinary experience.”
Kaufman had a slight cold at the time, with sneezing and a runny nose. Normally, she said, it wouldn’t have stopped her from traveling, but the airport authority advised travelers with symptoms not to fly.
“The hardship of it — emotionally, it was painful for me — was that I wanted to go, but the rational part of me was saying it’s not the right time to go,” she said.
The uncertainty surrounding COVID-19’s progression convinced John Beale and his wife to cancel their trip to Bradenton, Florida, to watch the Pittsburgh Pirates’ spring training.
“At the time, there were ... three or four confirmed cases in the area where we would be traveling,” said Beale, who teaches photojournalism at Penn State. “And we knew that we could get a complete refund on everything, so it wasn’t like we knew we were going to stay home.”
Instead of flying in to Tampa, Florida, and risking a quarantine or getting stranded, he said, the couple opted to visit their son and daughter-in-law in Virginia Beach, Virginia.
“I’m more concerned about ... getting back and being able to teach my students,” said Beale, referring to rumors that Penn State may cancel classes for the remainder of the spring semester amid coronavirus concerns.
Besides the headache of canceling planned travel, many travel insurances aren’t covering coronavirus because it is a “foreseen” event.
“The booking agency gave us about half the money back,” said Confer. “As it sits, unless we can kind of fight with the insurance agency, we are going to be out like 800 bucks. It’s not ideal.”
The airline had offered to rebook them for April, she said, but the timing wouldn’t have worked and Confer wasn’t sure the disease would have blown over by then.
Kaufman, too, had purchased travel insurance before she had even heard of coronavirus. But she checked the benefits the morning she left for the airport and found they did not cover viruses, including COVID-19.
“I was aware that I could lose all that money. I still don’t know if I will be able to get it back or not,” she said.
But the Confers are trying to make the most of it. They booked a trip to New Orleans for the week. Katie Confer said she feels safer traveling domestically, because “we can always drive back if something happens.”
Though Kaufman’s canceled trip dealt a blow to her professional life, she said she’s taking it as a sign to spend more time with family and slow down.
“As we’re being invited to slow down and stay local, I urge us all to see that as an invitation, rather than a confinement,” she said.
This story was originally published March 10, 2020 at 3:19 PM.
.jpg)