Red Sea (Egypt) closed (covid-19 confined)

[JustSurfaceInterval]

Well... That escalated quickly...
Breaking News: Egypt to require all those arriving to the country to present negative PCR test starting September

 

[Ministryofgiraffes]

I dove the Red Sea northern route out of Hurghada last year, and loved it. I'd planned to do a return trip this year, sailing this Saturday, out of Port Ghalib. I made a reservation pre-COVID over the phone with the operator, but he wouldn't take a credit card over the phone, and told me that he'd hold the reservation without a card. I would LOVE to honor the reservation if the boat is still sailing, especially because the operator took my word for it, but I am just not going to try to run the gauntlet of COVID tests, quarantines, missed connections, and last minute flight and boat cancellations. In a sense, I'm in the flip side of the coin of operators who got paid deposits and are not offering a full refund, and are instead giving a credit for a future trip. I definitely want to do another trip, but not willing to take all the risks described above.

dude, make sure you tell someone, because if they are holding a place for you and you cancel late and it creates a house of cards cancellation where they inform the other divers they now don’t have enough to sail And someone is all dressed up with nowhere to go, then that is no bueno...

 

[Ministryofgiraffes]

Well... That escalated quickly...
Breaking News: Egypt to require all those arriving to the country to present negative PCR test starting September

f&$cking great... cue the individual cancellations followed by the ‘now there aren’t enough divers’ cancellations.

 

[Adr1an]

Well... That escalated quickly...
Breaking News: Egypt to require all those arriving to the country to present negative PCR test starting September

Jeez... That's such a bad hit for all the Red Sea resorts...

Guess I was lucky to squeeze trough the closing door (so to speak).

BTW, if someone has a long enough layover in Istanbul between flights, there's a quick PCR test facility at the Sabiha Gokcen airport. They give the result in 4 hours and it costs like 25 euros or so. Of course, if the result is positive you won't have time to take another test. Not sure about the result paper but I suppose they can give it in English (whoever needs it will have to check first).

 

[JustSurfaceInterval]

I don't know how bad the hit will really be.
Having a test before flying should be doable - at least for Europeans and this will increase confidence/safety.
Having one approach for the whole country makes some things easier e.g. Nile cruises, visits to Luxor or layover in Cairo.
Of course, if you are coming from the other side of the world like Toronto or Hawaii, 72 h may be short or may require additional planning/stop over somewhere where you can get a test short term.

 

[Mmx06]

^ Agree.
More troublesome is the travel warning and its related uncertainties to travel companies.
Because of this my week in Dahab (End Sep/Early Oct) was cancelled by TUI.

 

[Adr1an]

Having a test before flying should be doable - at least for Europeans and this will increase confidence/safety.
Having one approach for the whole contry makes some things easier e.g. Nile cruises, visits to Luxor or layover in Cairo.
Of course, if you are coming from the other side of the world like Toronto or Hawaii, 72 h may be short or may require additional planning/stop over somewhere where you can get a test short term.

Actually I went trough all this (had initial plans to spend a few days in Cairo as I have a cheap direct flight from my hometown) when the 15 august restrictions kicked in.

There are two practical problems:
1. 72 hours validity means you have to take the test, wait for results (usually 48 hours with most testing facilities) then have at best 24 hours to travel to Egypt. For us Europeans it is doable, for people coming on overseas flights (and possibly having to already take a connecting flight just to get to the Cairo flight) that's a different story. This means diminishing numbers of tourist and more important divers.

2.I'm not sure how reliable are the PCR tests around the world but in my country there have been numerous cases of false positive tests. If you're handed a positive test with 24 hours left before the flight you can essentially kiss the hard earned $ goodbye.

This is why I chose to change planes in Istanbul and land directly at Sharm (where there was no requirement for a PCR test).

As things tighten up from Sept 1st probably the safest bet will be to buy only the flight tickets, make a cancellable hotel reservation for a couple of nights and sort out liveaboards and the like when already in Egypt.

 

[Ministryofgiraffes]

I don't know how bad the hit will really be.
Having a test before flying should be doable - at least for Europeans and this will increase confidence/safety.
Having one approach for the whole contry makes some things easier e.g. Nile cruises, visits to Luxor or layover in Cairo.
Of course, if you are coming from the other side of the world like Toronto or Hawaii, 72 h may be short or may require additional planning/stop over somewhere where you can get a test short term.

It’s not that difficult in Toronto to be fair. Even a month ago it was easy to get test with results in 48 hours and then you have 72 hours to get your flight. I guess the danger is getting the test too early and accidentally getting the results more than 72 hours before flying. Or waiting too long and there is a surge in tests and you don’t get a test in time... either way I guess if you try to balance it to get a result 48 hours before travelling you should be ok.

May concern lies more in divers deciding not to bother coming any more due to it being a hassle, recinding or pushing their spots on boats and then those boats which were ‘100 % confirmed’ no longer being ‘100% confirmed’....as happened last month and people were left high and dry.

I mean, we know that anything 100% in that part of the world is ‘inshallah’....obviously...

I’m looking forward/not looking forward to the conversation

Op- ‘sorry the boat is cancelled due to lack of divers, no refund’
Diver - ‘I’m standing in the marina! You said it was 100% confirmed!’
Op- ‘it was 100% confirmed...until some divers cancelled and then we didn’t have enough to sail..so then it became not 100% confirmed’
Diver ‘THEN THAT ISN’T 100% CONFIRMED YOU $&*+%#!’

Seinfeld - ‘you know how to TAKE the reservation’

 

[Adr1an]

It’s not that difficult in Toronto to be fair. Even a month ago it was easy to get test with results in 48 hours and then you have 72 hours to get your flight.

The way I always read it is that the test has to be no older then 72 hours from the moment of sampling, not 72 hours from the moment they issued the certificate. So it's 72 hours in total not 72+48 or whatever.

 

[bvbellomo]

That's very unlikely, IMHO. That would mean the virus disappears or the figures world wide become so low that it is no longer a pandemic. I would rather prepare to get a PCR Test in time.


Have the PCR Test done where? at the Airport? and Quarantine where? at the next 5* resorts?
And where do you think this test can be done in Egypt? your LOB will be equiped with test facilities? you will end your LOB 3 days early to get the test?
Sorry, but

COVID-19 Information | U.S. Embassy in Egypt

This is somewhat outdated, but testing should only get easier and cheaper.

"On March 9, the Government of Egypt also announced that it would provide COVID-19 tests at a cost of 70 USD for foreigners"
"COVID-19 tests are also currently offered by private companies. For example, PCR swab tests are offered at a cost of 3,000 Egyptian pounds (189 USD) per test by AlMokhtabar labs. Results are available within 24 hours."

The airport is a large place, and I can't believe there is no place to run the tests and detain visitors. Losing the time and cost is significant, however I am sure many would rather do that than cancel plans.