COVID-19 Pandemic Update (March 24, 2020)

he COVID-19 pandemic continues to expand globally. Its expansion trend changes from nation to nation every day and I am documenting the situation to remember more clearly later.

Today is March 25 and we are supposed to have completed the 14-day quarantine period after we left Spain in light of its rapid spreading of the coronavirus. Both of us are not showing the apparent symptoms of COVID-19. But I have caught a cold with sneezing and runny nose.

In Thailand, from midnight today, all foreigners cannot enter Thailand, except the diplomats. In other words, borers are closed as some of the countries openly do. Also, there will be a curfew from 7 PM to 7 AM until April 30. All Thai nations entering Thailand must complete the 14-day quarantine period. Gradually but surely, Thailand has followed the suit of many other countries. Naturally, airline schedules are canceled often.

India ordered a complete lockdown for all people of 1.3 Billion for three weeks. Cities are locked down and people work from home. Streets are empty. The US has seen a dramatic increase in the number of confirmed cases and Spain has seen an astonishing rate of deaths compared to the confirmed patients, let alone Italy that has experienced the highest fatality among COVID-19 patients, even higher than the official Chinese reporting of the death.

Some numbers as of March 24 are:

• Confirmed cases     436,481
• Closed cases           131,532 (including recoveries of 111,889)
• Active cases            304,949 (including serious cases of 13,267)
• Death                        19,643

US Statistics are:

• Confirmed cases      54,996
• Active cases            53,832
• Deaths                           785

As of March 24, the US was ranked the third in the number of confirmed cases, after China and Italy and the first in the number of active cases. The Senate and the White House reached a $2 Trillion deal for economic stimulus. The FRB announced an indefinite purchase of commercial papers as well as government-back papers to inject liquidity. The stock market has tanked over the week to 10 days, losing 30%.

Many countries are short of health workers to handle the growing number of patients, Moreover, some of them are also contracting the virus to be sick and not to be able to work.

No light seems to be seen at the end of the tunnel at this point.

Below are some charts that I saw in TIME magazine based on March 17 data.

On a bright side, however, Italy is reporting a slowdown in new confirmed cases; S. Korea appears to flatten the curve; China is reporting no new case in Wuhan, the epicenter of this pandemic.

President Trump is hoping to reopen the US economy by the Easter defying dire warnings of health experts. Oh well...

We keep going on our knees to God with sincere repentance and keep praying for God's forgiveness and mercy, particularly to the health workers, and to people in the poor countries without reliable infrastructures. - Jeffrey 

Travel Halted due to COVID-19, World (March and Onward)

I started my 4-month travel journey on February 1, 2020. At that time, the COVID-19 or the novel corona virus disease was still a serious issue only in Asia, mainly in China and Korea, probably also in Singapore. It was first identified in Wuhan, China in December 2019. It was then introduced to be a killer virus. Soon afterward, people downplayed it and predicted that it will disappear when the heat comes around. WHO was still short of calling the crisis a pandemic. Thus, it was making mistakes and sending wrong signals to the world.

I traveled to Sri Lanka for a week and drove around the island nation without a problem. At that time, Sri Lanka had one Chinese tourist patient confirmed to be positive with the COVID-19. Other than that, people were not concerned at all about COVID-19.

I then traveled to Kathmandu Nepal for a week and had no problem. Nepal had only one patient then. I was lecturing for the whole week and at times I had meetings over breakfast, lunch and dinner. Also, I spent time with the graduates of SfK MBA BCT Kathmandu 2019.

My journey made an overnight stop in Muscat Oman where no one was found to be ill at that time. I was there for less than 24 hours, but my brief visit was quite productive with a rental car that allowed me to drive to the places of interest.

I continued my travel to Lahore Pakistan for a week, where no COVID-19 patient was identified during my visit. I stayed at a local residence interacting daily with people who attended the training and the host family over daily breakfast and at times dinner.



Thus, I continued my travel to Tbilisi Georgia for several days, where again no patient was identified. I spent time with a graduate of SfK MBA BCT Irvine 2018. We had a brainstorming session about what he was going to do for his missional business.

Then, I traveled to Madrid Spain on February 26. At that time, Spain started seeing some patients, but primarily in Costa del Sol and islands in the Mediterranean Sea. Madrid seemed to be without any patients and no one was taking the COVID-19 seriously. No one was wearing a mask and people were not even talking about it. The Spanish officials were downplaying it very much.

On March 1, Kristin arrived in Madrid for an overnight stay and the following day we traveled to Valencia by bus. We stayed there for 10 days. While we were staying in Valencia, the situation in Europe was getting worse every day. Italy was the worst country, followed by Spain. But, Spain's problem was primarily in Madrid. In Madrid and Valencia, no one was wearing masks and we could not wear them either.

We left Valencia on March 11 for Malta. While we were staying there, the situation in Costa del Sol was getting worse along with Madrid. The number of patients in Costa del Sol accounted for 70% of all patients in the Andalucia Autonomous Community.

I had to make a decision about whether we should continue our travel. After a discussion with Kristin, we made a decision to stop all remaining schedules and return home in Thailand.

After we made the decision, European nations began to take aggressive actions to stop the spread of COVID-19. Spain issued a decree similar to martial law, locking down all residents in Madrid, except for essential trips. Madrid turned out to be the epicenter of Spain's COVID-19 pandemic. Our decision was made timely and correctly. As a result, all airports were getting empty as travelers come to halt all over the world.

We purchased flight tickets from Turkish Airways and we went to the airport. But, alas! Turkish Airways check-in counter staff told us that we could not transit Istanbul unless we have completed the 14-day quarantine period in Malta after we left Spain on March 11. I thought it was harsh.

As the second option, we bought the tickets from Qatar Airways to transit Doha to go to Bangkok two days later. In the worst-case scenario, we were thinking of staying in Malta for an additional 10 days. But we were concerned about potential lockdowns or airport shutdowns that could happen in any place and at any time.

Fortunately, we were able to travel through all travel segments and arrived home on March 17. Praise the Lord! It was the first time that we felt grateful for just letting us fly for the flights we paid for.

At any rate, we ended up canceling our trip to Tunis, the return trip to Malta and to Valencia, a road trip to Malaga, a 2-week timeshare stay in Costa del Sol, a trip to Casablanca, Morocco tour with Gate 1 (they have already suspended the tour with full credit for a future trip.), travel to Cairo Egypt, and travel to Thailand where I was supposed to attend two conferences. But, FBA Forum has been canceled and BAM Congress has been postponed to 2021.

Also, Amanda postponed her wedding that was supposed to take place on May 30 and I had to cancel their honeymoon trip to Tahiti, French Polynesia.

I need to make a lot of calls to cancel the reservations and make persistent follow up on previous cancellations and mistakes made by the airlines and/or travel service providers. It is a lot of hassle. But, it is so good to be home.

Meanwhile, so many people continue to be getting sick, more than 250 thousand, and also many people die, more than 10 thousand, as of March 20, 2020. I have not seen anything like this in my entire life. The magnitude of geographical impact (Now WHO has called it a pandemic), the speed of spreading, the strength of contagiousness are all unprecedented.

For the first time, the US has increased the overall overseas travel advisory to Level 4, meaning "Do not travel." The government is planning to give cash to all low-income citizens. Businesses are closed and the streets are empty. No one can predict how things will develop. Uncertainty and anxiety are rampant among people.

But as a believer, I need to remain in God's peace or Shalom that no one in the world can know or give. Shalom is not an absence of war, but an active presence of peacefulness in perfect harmony with the Creator God no matter what the circumstances may be. What would be the worst outcome out of this COVID-19 pandemic? Getting sick? Hospitalization? Dying? Whatever the outcome, we believers are looking beyond this life into the eternity that God has promised for His people.

Also, I believe that we need to repent before God. It is God's wrath against humanity for its defiance against Him. It is a warning that His patience is drying up. Without our repentance, His wrath may be poured out on us and the Day of the Lord may come. We need to seek God's forgiveness and mercy, but first we need to repent with a sincere heart. Oh Lord, please be merciful to us.

I do not know whether I will be able to travel again and if so when. But I will wait for His guidance in His time. - Jeffrey

Harbor Cruise, Valleta, Malta (March 2020)

To the Hop-On Hop-Off Bust Tour, a Harbor Cruise was added as a bonus, but I thought it was better than the bus tour. It was indeed superb. The views were fantastic and we did not have to suffer from the strong wind and traffic jams.

The boat we rode was small but cute and colorful.

The cruise took approximately 90 minutes but visited almost all creeks as well as main harbors.

One of the spots we passed through was a ship that was used for filming the cartoon movie Popeyes. Now it is a restaurant. In fact, there is Popeye Village in Anchor Bay where Paramount Pictures and Disney Pictures established their movie sets to film the movie. But, they were abandoned in 1980 and the village still attracts tourists year-round.

I could easily figure that tourism is an important source of Malta's GDP. But it accounts for only 25% of its GDP. The remainder comes from the manufacturing of high valued products like electronics and pharmaceuticals primarily for exports, filming, and maritime services. I learned that Gladiator, Troy and World War Z were filed in Malta recently. Also, Malta's per capita GDP adjusted for purchasing power parity was known to be around $30,000. Wow! We passed by industrial structures and shipbuilding docks during the cruise.

We saw many condominium buildings built all over the island, even in a remote area like the mouth to the harbor. I am not sure if it is a good idea.

We could have visited two other islands of Malta, namely Gozo and Comino. To visit there, we should take a boat like one below and travel for two hours each way and spend an hour or so in each island. We chose not to. Perhaps next time.

Our stay in Malta was short, but we thoroughly enjoyed the scenic views and cozy ambiance of the cafes and restaurants located all over the island. Definitely, we could stay longer and surely we will consider coming back. - Jeffrey

North Route, Valleta, Malta (March 2020)

We took the North Route tour the following day after the South Route tour.

The tour began also from the Sliema Ferries stop. It also went into Valleta and passed through part of the city. 

We passed through a town called Mosta located in the northern region of Malta. It is a small town but very densely populated due to its transportation importance. Mosta's iconic building is Rotunda, a large basilica built by the volunteers.

We made a stop at Mdina, Malta's ancient capital and heavily fortified with moat and stone walls. Walking around the city inside a fortified wall was quite interesting. It reminded me of many castles that we saw in Italy's Tuscany Region.

It is very common to walk on these stone streets between buildings in the castle.

The view from the palace was panoramic.

Riding the open-air bus in the scenic route in the beautiful island alone was refreshing and relaxing. We thoroughly enjoyed the bus tour. - Jeffrey