With the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) continuing to spread throughout the globe, there have been restrictions that have been placed throughout many countries. From travel bans to complete lockdowns in certain countries, it has created many issues for many people as they try to stay safe, including not doing any travel that is not mandatory. This includes many students and their families, who have canceled their trips due to the spread of the virus, or precautions that are taking place in the locations they were going to.

For Paloma Beacham ’21, she had been looking forward to going to Fort Lauderdale, Florida with her friend’s family for the past three months. However, they decided to cancel the trip after the beaches and pools started to close near the destination they were heading to.

“I was going with my friend’s family, and my friend’s mom was considering if we should cancel our flights,” Beacham said. “At first she was like ‘Oh we could still go down there’, but they basically closed all the beaches on the resorts until April 13, so we couldn’t do anything about it, so the family canceled the whole thing.”

Caroline Parent ’22 was set to go on a tour of the University of Michigan with her family during spring break, but that was canceled due to the outbreak. She was also intending on traveling to Nebraska for her cousin’s wedding, but the event is now postponed.

“My family was supposed to go to a wedding on April 17, but the reception had to get rescheduled because there’s too many people and my family was worried about the virus spreading,” Parent said. “Obviously, people don’t want to pass it. And then over the actual spring break, we were going to go tour the University of Michigan, and then that got canceled because all the universities are closing. So it’s impacted our plans a lot, which is okay because we need to take precautions.”

Audrey Monarrez ’22 was ready to fly to North Carolina to visit her grandparents, but her family decided to cancel their trip as a precaution to protect her family members.

“We were going to visit family in North Carolina and since flying is dangerous and risky I guess,we can’t really travel anymore,” Monarrez said. “It was mostly because we were visiting my grandma and grandpa, so we didn’t want to risk their health. We didn’t want to share or transmit the coronavirus, since we already have so many cases in Wayne County. That was the main reason why we canceled the trip.”

According to the Centers For Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), there are approximately 54,453 cases of COVID-19 in the United States, and around 737 deaths. Around 584 of these cases are travel-related, while 986 cases were the result of close contact with an infected person. Because of this, travel is not recommended and a person needs to be tested when arriving back from high-risk countries, including China and Italy. Many people have decided to cancel their travel plans, including the spring break trips that people had been supposed to go on.

“Well, we kinda thought about it and we were like ‘Well, it probably wouldn’t be safe to travel on an airplane,” Parent said. “But it’s not airborne, but it could spread easily and there’s a lot of germs in other places.”

With these trips canceled for the time being, many people are hopeful that they can still reschedule their trips, including refunds from airlines who are helping their customers book a flight at a later date.

“Since we got credited and got money back, we could re-book within the next six months and make the travel plan by May, so we might go in the summer,” Beacham said.

There are also hopes that several events can be rescheduled at a later date, including weddings, college tours, and concerts that were rescheduled or canceled as a result of COVID-19.

“We definitely are going to reschedule the University of Michigan tour because my sister and I want to tour it, and my whole family does because my mom went there,” Parent said. “My aunt told us that the wedding reception was going to be postponed to sometime in September, but they don’t know for sure. The actual ceremony is still going to be on April 17.”

If the situation gets better, many people might be able to visit their relatives at a later time during this year, without the risk of transmitting COVID-19 to family members.

“We haven’t made a decision yet, but we are hoping to,” Monarrez said. “Seeing how the coronavirus has canceled our trip for spring break, we’ll probably reschedule. We only get to see my grandparents once or twice a year”

Since many people in Grosse Pointe are staying home, many things are being taken into consideration one step at a time.

“Instead of traveling, we’re just going to have a staycation because any type of travel is kind of looked down upon,” Monarrez said. “Because we have to practice social distancing, we’re probably just going to stay home.”

While many people are stuck in quarantine at their houses, some are taking things one step at a time, hoping things will get better as the days go by.

“I think it’ll get better as time goes on, but for now I’m planning to just get all my homework done, and because of the virus I am in quarantine and not allowed to leave my house,” Beacham said. “I’ll also plan to spend time with my family and hopefully this thing will get better.”