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To quarantine or not to quarantine – that is the question.

At least for countries that are thinking about dealing with international travelers.

That changed last month, however, when Sri Lanka reopened its borders with a requirement unlike any country previously opened – one that neither allows travelers the freedom of the island nor places them in a hotel room for two weeks wraps up.

Sri Lankan Tourism Chairman Kimarli Fernando described it as a “new concept” developed by the Tourism Authority. It allows tourists to tour the country in “bio-bubbles” or in semi-isolated groups, allowing travelers to see sites without mixing with the local people.

The rules apply for the first two weeks of their stay.

Rules of the ‘bio-bubble’

When Sri Lanka reopened its borders on January 21, it became one of the few Asian countries – including the Maldives – where international travelers could enter without strict quarantine.

But tourists are not exactly free to go where they want. Sri Lanka’s “bio-bubbles” allow vacationers to get around the island provided they:

· Stay in approved hotels
· Visit approved websites at specific times
· Travel by independent means of transport
Perform frequent Covid-19 tests and
· Do not mix with the local people

These rules must be followed for the first two weeks after entering Sri Lanka. After that, guests are free to “interact with the local community” and “move into the accommodation of their choice,” according to a safety brochure produced by the country’s Ministry of Tourism.

The plan was first tested in a pilot project with Ukrainian tourists in late December 2020.

Where travelers can stay

As of February 17, there are 98 certified “Level 1” hotels that travelers can stay at for the first two weeks of a trip. The list includes hotels and villas in tourist hotspots like Bentota, Galle, Kandy and Sri Lanka’s capital Colombo.

Hotels cover a range of budgets, from guest houses in the surfing paradise of Hikkaduwa to tented lodges near Yala National Park to the luxurious Ani villas in Dickwella.

Sri Lanka is famous for its pristine and often empty beaches.

Dowel | Moment | Getty Images

The country’s two Aman hotels – Amangalla and Amanwella – as well as some of the restored British bungalows that make up the Ceylon Tea Trails in the beautiful tea region are on the list.

Unlike strict quarantines, travelers are not limited to their hotel rooms for the first two weeks of a trip. Guests are “allowed to use all of the hotel’s facilities including the beach,” Fernando told CNBC Global Traveler.

The hotels are said to be 75% busy and leave the remaining rooms open to isolate any guests who have tested positive for Covid-19. This option is only available to people without symptoms. infected travelers who have symptoms of Covid-19 must be isolated in a private hospital.

An Asian elephant walks along a dirt road in Yala National Park.

SolStock | E + | Getty Images

“All certified hotels have a doctor,” said Fernando. These doctors are supposed to monitor hotel staff and guests for Covid-19 symptoms and send daily reports to government agencies, according to Sri Lanka’s safety brochure.

Hotel employees who are in direct contact with guests are not allowed to leave the hotel during the guests’ stay and for 14 days thereafter. And if they are not equipped with personal protective equipment (PPE), Sri Lankans who come into contact with tourists – such as tour guides and drivers – must be quarantined for 14 days after the end of a tour.

Where travelers can and cannot go

During the first two weeks of a trip, travelers are allowed to switch between hotels and visit approved tourist attractions, provided they visit during certain periods of time that have been assigned to tourists. When out and about, they are not allowed to interact with local residents or other travelers.

Tourists must arrange transportation through their hotels or through a certified tour guide.

The list of places travelers are allowed to travel includes some of the most famous landmarks in Sri Lanka including the Sigiriya Fortress and the ancient cities of Anuradhapura and Polonnaruwa. Yala National Park and the whale watching tours near Mirissa town are also on the list.

An ancient palace once stood on top of the 660-foot Sigiriya Rock, a UNESCO World Heritage Site that is on the list of recognized tourist attractions.

Anton Petrus | Moment | Getty Images

However, the Dambulla Cave Temple and the 16th century Galle Fort, both UNESCO World Heritage Sites, are not currently open to tourists.

Pre-planning is required for all outside travel, including stops for meals and toilet breaks.

Frequent Covid Tests

Travelers to Sri Lanka must undergo at least two Covid tests and possibly more, depending on the length of your stay.

Covid tests are initially required within 96 hours of departure and again after landing in Sri Lanka. Those who stay longer than five days must take a third test, and those who stay longer than two weeks must do a fourth test.

The Nine Arches Bridge is located in the elevated central highlands of Sri Lanka.

Michael Roberts | Moment | Getty Images

Children under the age of 12 are exempt from testing unless they become symptomatic or are in close contact with an infected traveler.

Travelers must also apply for a visa prior to departure. Prior to this, tourists must make hotel bookings, purchase Covid-19 insurance (USD 12), and prepay for Covid-19 tests (USD 40 each).

Visas are not currently issued to anyone who has been to the UK two weeks prior to entering Sri Lanka.

Do ‘organic bubbles’ attract tourists?

On February 15, Fernando of Sri Lanka Tourism told CNBC that 3,820 people had arrived since the country reopened on January 21.

“Compared to the first two to three weeks of arriving in the Maldives in July 2020, our arrivals are slightly higher,” she said.

Women pick tea near the town of Nuwara Eliya in central Sri Lanka.

Tuul & Bruno Morandi | The image database | Getty Images

Fernando said the travelers were from Germany, Russia, Ukraine and expatriates living in “GCC countries”, referring to the Gulf Cooperation Council member countries in Bahrain, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates .

She added that Sri Lanka is waiting for a “bubble agreement” to start flights with India as well.

Covid-19 rates in Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka had low rates of Covid-19 infection until October last year. Cases have risen steadily since then, and the number of infections peaked earlier this month.

The country of 21.5 million people has confirmed more than 77,000 cases so far, according to Johns Hopkins University. Almost 11,500 cases have occurred in the past two weeks.

Sri Lanka started a vaccination campaign in late January. Fernando told CNBC that health officials will vaccinate all tourism workers “over the next few weeks.”

Imax broke its box office records over the weekend of the New Year celebrations in China and the results predict what will happen when more US theaters resume operations this summer, CEO Rich Gelfond told CNBC on Tuesday.

The company, which produces immersive movie experiences, said it grossed $ 25 million between Friday and Sunday, up 45% from its pre-pandemic record.

“It tells you [that] If it’s safe to go outside and people want to go, run to the movies, “said Gelfond, who appeared on Closing Bell after the deal on Wall Street ended.

Detective Chinatown 3, a comedy adventure postponed from the release of Lunar New Year last year, captured a large portion of Imax ticket sales during the three-day period. The film grossed $ 23.5 million, the best results Imax has ever seen for a Chinese film. The action films “A Writer’s Odyssey” and “New Gods: Nezha Reborn” have also helped Imax hit both gross admissions and gross sales highs.

Coming from the news, Imax shares rose more than 6% on Tuesday, the best day since November. The stock closed at $ 19.85, up more than 5% after hours.

Imax took in more than 1 million people in cinemas in China on Friday, the best one-day attendance ever recorded. The results come despite capacity constraints that persist in entertainment businesses in China. The $ 25 million Imax brought in at the box office was better than the comparable opening week of 2019 that preceded the coronavirus pandemic.

Most theaters in China have a 75% capacity limit, while parts of the country with higher broadcasts of Covid-19 are limited to 50%. US theater restrictions vary by state. Limitations range from 25% capacity in Minnesota to 50% in Indiana to 100% in Alaska. This is based on data held by the National Association of Theater Owners.

The seven-day New Year holiday ends on Wednesday. Theaters in China closed around this time last year when the country shut down in response to the fast-spreading virus discovered in Wuhan city, Hubei province in late 2019.

The movie frenzy was fueled by China’s traditional travel season, which has largely been suspended due to coronavirus restrictions. Millions of time spent in the cinema with scrapped travel plans.

Gelfond said Imax expected strong participation in China over the weekend.

“I think the only thing you can say is the pent-up demand that people just get tired of sitting on their couches and watching streaming or whatever else they’ve been doing,” he said. “I think they are just happy to get out and I think that gives the rest of the world a guess.”

In the midst of the pandemic, Imax’s 2020 sales fell 74% from the first three quarters of last year through September. The company is expected to report fourth quarter and full year 2020 performance next month.

Gelfond said in December that the release of US films in 2021, including a number of films postponed from first releases last year, would be an “embarrassment of fortune” for Imax if the country’s theaters closed Should be opened at the beginning of the year.

According to the online ticketing platform Maoyan Entertainment, mainland China posted holiday week sales of 6.77 billion yuan, or $ 1.05 billion, on Tuesday. That figure surpassed the record 5.9 billion yuan in the same period of 2019.

Since the theaters reopened in June, box office revenues have increased. Coronavirus cases have declined sharply in countries like China, Australia and South Korea, and movie ticket sales have increased.

Global movie ticket sales decreased 70% year over year in 2020. Ticket sales in the Asia-Pacific region accounted for approximately 51% of global sales, up from 41% in 2019, based on information from Comscore and Gower Street. The US and Canadian box office sales accounted for just 18% of sales in 2020, compared to 30% in 2019.

– Reuters contributed to this report.

JetBlue Airways planes are pictured at the departure gates of John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York.

Fred Prouser | Reuters

JetBlue Airways exempts ticket exchange fees on most of its tickets, but travelers buying the cheapest fares should take light bags.

The New York-based airline announced Tuesday that it will guarantee seats on its standard bus fares up to Mint Business Class starting July 20. However, travelers who have booked Blue Basic, the airline’s cheapest option, are banned from using baggage hold, a policy United Airlines introduced when it began selling simple, no-frills economy tickets in 2017.

If JetBlue fails to deliver on its promise, travelers are given a $ 25 loan. That’s a relatively easy task during the pandemic, when few people are traveling, but finding luggage space has been a “major pain point” for travelers when boarding, the airline said.

Airline executives have stated that these simple options are designed to compete better with discount airlines Spirit Airlines and Frontier, which derive much of their revenue from bag and seat selection additional fees. However, they have also said that they would like many travelers to avoid these most restrictive fares and pay more for the standard economy.

JetBlue wants to make these cheaper, more restrictive tariffs cheaper.

“Right now, our Blue and Blue Basic offerings are very similar,” said JetBlue President and COO Joanna Geraghty in a message to employees. “We need to better differentiate the two by making blue the gold standard and strategically focusing on lowering the price of Blue Basic.”

The two burgeoning Ebola outbreaks in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Guinea require swift action “to avoid catastrophic consequences,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Tuesday.

It is the first official White House statement on the recurrence of Ebola in the two African countries. Psaki said President Joe Biden had been briefed on the situation in Central and West Africa.

“While the world is plagued by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, Ebola has re-emerged in both Central and West Africa at the same time. The world cannot afford to go the other way,” Psaki wrote in the statement. “We must do everything in our power to respond quickly, effectively and by reasonable means to stop these outbreaks before they turn into large-scale epidemics.”

The World Health Organization announced last week that it had confirmed new cases of Ebola in Butembo, a city in North Kivu Province in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The city was an epicenter of the world’s second largest Ebola outbreak, which was declared over in June. WHO officials said Friday they would transport vaccines to the hard-to-reach city and try to contain the highly deadly disease before it spreads widely.

Regardless, Guinea officials confirmed the reappearance of Ebola in N’Zerekore in southern Guinea over the weekend. The West African nation declared an Ebola epidemic on Sunday after at least three people died and four more were infected with the disease. The neighboring countries of Sierra Leone and Liberia have put their citizens on alert.

In contrast to the highly infectious coronavirus, which can be transmitted by people without symptoms, it is believed that Ebola spreads mainly through people who are already visibly ill. The virus spreads through direct contact with the blood or body fluids of people who are sick or have died of the disease, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Ebola has an average death rate of 50% which, according to the WHO, can vary depending on the outbreak.

Psaki said US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan spoke with ambassadors from Guinea, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Sierra Leone and Liberia on Tuesday “to convey the United States’ readiness to work closely with these countries”.

“Mr. Sullivan highlighted President Biden’s commitment to lead the United States to strengthen health security and create better systems to prevent, detect and respond to health emergencies,” said Psaki. “Outbreaks require a quick and overwhelming response to avoid disastrous consequences.”

The recurrence of Ebola in Guinea and the Democratic Republic of the Congo has hit global health specialists particularly hard, as these countries have the two worst Ebola outbreaks in history. The outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, declared in June, lasted nearly two years. At the time of the end, there were a total of 3,481 cases and 2,299 deaths, according to WHO.

The infamous Ebola outbreak in West Africa began in Guinea in 2014 before spreading across land borders to Sierra Leone and Liberia, according to WHO. By the end of 2016, there were more than 28,000 cases, including over 11,000 deaths, according to the WHO.

“Since the 2014 Ebola epidemic in West Africa, the United States has sought to increase and prioritize health security support with partners under the global health security agenda and with strong support from Congress,” Psaki added Tuesday. “We cannot afford to take our foot off the gas – even in the fight against COVID, we must ensure the capacity and funding of health security worldwide.”

During the Ebola outbreak in West Africa, the US CDC confirmed 11 cases of Ebola in the US, mostly among medical professionals who had traveled to Africa to help with the response. Dr. Syra Madad, senior director of the system-wide program for specific pathogens at New York City Health + Hospitals, told CNBC on Tuesday that the city was working to ensure that its outbreak response protocols are up to date.

“Every time an epidemic is reported, at least in New York City – we know we are a travel center – we need to make sure our people are up to date on skills [personal protective equipment] and identify these patients, “she said in a telephone interview.” There’s a big mess just to make sure the concept of the operation plan is dusted off. “