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COVID Where can you stay should you contract covid on the Camino?

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Time of past OR future Camino
CF September 2022
CF April 2024
Hi All, first time poster here seeking advice from the 'brains trust'. My friend and I are travelling from Australia and will be commencing our CF from SJPDP later this September and our query is this... with Covid/variants evolving at an alarming rate, so too are protocols; can anyone advise what happens to a pilgrim who contracts Covid on the Way in the current climate? It goes without saying, there are moral and legal obligations to fulfil to protect others, however, my question is, who will/is authorised to take a pilgrim in to isolate/recover? Has anyone been in this position to advise?
 
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I caught Covid while on the Camino in Portugal. At the time, the required isolation period was 7 days. I found an apartment on booking.com, and stayed there until my isolation was over.
I have a couple of friends who also got Covid while on the Camino, and they did pretty much the same.
 
Hi All, first time poster here seeking advice from the 'brains trust'. My friend and I are travelling from Australia and will be commencing our CF from SJPDP later this September and our query is this... with Covid/variants evolving at an alarming rate, so too are protocols; can anyone advise what happens to a pilgrim who contracts Covid on the Way in the current climate? It goes without saying, there are moral and legal obligations to fulfil to protect others, however, my question is, who will/is authorised to take a pilgrim in to isolate/recover? Has anyone been in this position to advise?
I caught Covid on the Primitivo. I woke one morning not feeling very well, and I used a RAT test to check - it is worthwhile carrying a couple imo, as well as a few good masks. The test was immediately positive.

Wearing a mask, and keeping my distance, I asked the hostess of the accommodation for assistance to find me somewhere I could self isolate (she was full). Neither the provincial government or the national government required me to self isolate but I did not want to be responsible for giving it to anyone else.

My hostess found me a tiny flat in the next town, opposite the Albergue, and arranged for me to be transported there by taxi. It was perfect. The hospitalero in the Albergue provided me with supplies when needed, and I stayed for 7 days, until my symptoms had completely disappeared and I felt well.

If my hostess had not been so helpful I would have done the same as @trecile, and found something through booking.com

I did have Covid cover on my travel insurance, but did not use it as the tiny flat did not cost me much more than I would have been paying for accommodation anyway.

If you do intend to claim on travel insurance, make sure you get an official test done.
 
The one from Galicia (the round) and the one from Castilla & Leon. Individually numbered and made by the same people that make the ones you see on your walk.
Wearing a mask, and keeping my distance, I asked the hostess of the accommodation for assistance to find me somewhere I could self isolate (she was full). Neither the provincial government or the national government required me to self isolate but I did not want to be responsible for giving it to anyone else.

My hostess found me a tiny flat in the next town, opposite the Albergue, and arranged for me to be transported there by taxi. It was perfect. The hospitalero in the Albergue provided me with supplies when needed, and I stayed for 7 days, until my symptoms had completely disappeared and I felt well.
I have heard of hospitalero/as helping those with Covid find accommodation, and in fact that's what happened for a couple of friends, but I was not so lucky. The hospitalero where I was staying wasn't sure if I could even get a taxi to pick me up to take me to a place to isolate. He did suggest a nearby town that would have all services that I needed (the albergue was in a remote location away from any towns). So I then found the apartment on my own, and walked about 10 km to reach it. Fortunately I was feeling fairly well - other than one day of extreme fatigue I was never very sick, and the walk wasn't difficult for me that day. The next day (my day of fatigue) it would have been impossible. I credit the fact that I had received a 2nd booster two weeks before I arrived in Portugal for having very mild symptoms.
 
I have heard of hospitalero/as helping those with Covid find accommodation, and in fact that's what happened for a couple of friends, but I was not so lucky. The hospitalero where I was staying wasn't sure if I could even get a taxi to pick me up to take me to a place to isolate. He did suggest a nearby town that would have all services that I needed (the albergue was in a remote location away from any towns). So I then found the apartment on my own, and walked about 10 km to reach it. Fortunately I was feeling fairly well - other than one day of extreme fatigue I was never very sick, and the walk wasn't difficult for me that day. The next day (my day of fatigue) it would have been impossible. I credit the fact that I had received a 2nd booster two weeks before I arrived in Portugal for having very mild symptoms.
The person I am sharing my Airbnb with in Spain has Covid. I don’t know the rules but as her symptoms are mild she doesn’t have to isolate anymore…she wears a mask in the communal kitchen and bathroom (at her initiation as opposed to my request).
 
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It goes without saying, there are moral and legal obligations to fulfil to protect others, however, my question is, who will/is authorised to take a pilgrim in to isolate/recover? Has anyone been in this position to advise?
As others have indicated, the legal obligations to fulfil in Spain these days are all but over unless you are pretty sick. If you have no symptoms or mild symptoms, you are not required to isolate. Of course, you may still choose to isolate for moral reasons as I did when I tested positive in Ourense last month.

The way it was explained to us by a local was that Spain's current attitude is that if you don't need to go to hospital, Spain doesn't want to know about you testing positive.

In my case, I was already staying in an apartment for two nights while taking a rest day and was able to extend this stay without coming into physical contact with anyone, so I was quite fortunate in that regard.
 
The one from Galicia (the round) and the one from Castilla & Leon. Individually numbered and made by the same people that make the ones you see on your walk.
Hi All, first time poster here seeking advice from the 'brains trust'. My friend and I are travelling from Australia and will be commencing our CF from SJPDP later this September and our query is this... with Covid/variants evolving at an alarming rate, so too are protocols; can anyone advise what happens to a pilgrim who contracts Covid on the Way in the current climate? It goes without saying, there are moral and legal obligations to fulfil to protect others, however, my question is, who will/is authorised to take a pilgrim in to isolate/recover? Has anyone been in this position to advise?
Good question and timely. Alway good to keep informed on this for everyone's sake IMHO.
 
The focus is on reducing the risk of failure through being well prepared. 2nd ed.
Hi All, first time poster here seeking advice from the 'brains trust'. My friend and I are travelling from Australia and will be commencing our CF from SJPDP later this September and our query is this... with Covid/variants evolving at an alarming rate, so too are protocols; can anyone advise what happens to a pilgrim who contracts Covid on the Way in the current climate? It goes without saying, there are moral and legal obligations to fulfil to protect others, however, my question is, who will/is authorised to take a pilgrim in to isolate/recover? Has anyone been in this position to advise?
Hi
My wife and I were supposed to start the Camino Portuguese route on the 8th. I had just completed SJPDP to Santiago. Day after I arrived in Porto I started feeling symptoms. The fallowing day my wife arrived from the states with some at home rapid tests. Mine lit up positive in four mins. So what do we do? Know one is tracking Covid in Spain or Portugal. It is my responsibility and mine alone to self quarantine. My case has been quite severe. I was lucky to have my wife here. She ran to the pharmacy for fever meds and cough syrup. Probably the worst sore throat I have ever had. We went on line and found a Airbnb with air conditioning. Cooler air really helps with the cough. And we are now on day six since I tested positive. The conundrum is, how long do we stay? The answer to that question is all over the board. I am feeling better and I’m ready to start walking tomorrow. But has enough time gone by? Am I still contagious? That’s the big question! So we have decided to start walking after seven days in isolation. We are going to get private accommodations and social distance. So really if you get Covid it’s your choice on what to do.

Good luck
Buen Camino my friend
Pete
 
My husband and I both thought we'd slept badly the night before as we were not feeling well as we walked one day on the CF in May. When we arrived in El Burgo de Ranero, we took naps then used our home kits to find we both tested positive. The next day we took the train and a bus to Astorga where we stayed 5 nights in a hotel. Like others have said it's really up to you how you deal with it. Advice we were given was to isolate as best you can. We masked up, ate outside in the plaza and didn't get close to people.
Our symptoms were much better by then though our energy levels never got back to where they had been.
So be prepared to "let go" of some things and accept the Camino you are given! (That last bit is true even if you don't get covid! )
 
Hi
My wife and I were supposed to start the Camino Portuguese route on the 8th. I had just completed SJPDP to Santiago. Day after I arrived in Porto I started feeling symptoms. The fallowing day my wife arrived from the states with some at home rapid tests. Mine lit up positive in four mins. So what do we do? Know one is tracking Covid in Spain or Portugal. It is my responsibility and mine alone to self quarantine. My case has been quite severe. I was lucky to have my wife here. She ran to the pharmacy for fever meds and cough syrup. Probably the worst sore throat I have ever had. We went on line and found a Airbnb with air conditioning. Cooler air really helps with the cough. And we are now on day six since I tested positive. The conundrum is, how long do we stay? The answer to that question is all over the board. I am feeling better and I’m ready to start walking tomorrow. But has enough time gone by? Am I still contagious? That’s the big question! So we have decided to start walking after seven days in isolation. We are going to get private accommodations and social distance. So really if you get Covid it’s your choice on what to do.

Good luck
Buen Camino my friend
Pete
I was reading about contagion times yesterday and it said something like average times are 1-5 days before symptoms appear. Not sure about after symptoms. In NSW (australia) it's ok to go about if you have no symptoms or five days after first symptoms- if are well enough.
 
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Hi
My wife and I were supposed to start the Camino Portuguese route on the 8th. I had just completed SJPDP to Santiago. Day after I arrived in Porto I started feeling symptoms. The fallowing day my wife arrived from the states with some at home rapid tests. Mine lit up positive in four mins. So what do we do? Know one is tracking Covid in Spain or Portugal. It is my responsibility and mine alone to self quarantine. My case has been quite severe. I was lucky to have my wife here. She ran to the pharmacy for fever meds and cough syrup. Probably the worst sore throat I have ever had. We went on line and found a Airbnb with air conditioning. Cooler air really helps with the cough. And we are now on day six since I tested positive. The conundrum is, how long do we stay? The answer to that question is all over the board. I am feeling better and I’m ready to start walking tomorrow. But has enough time gone by? Am I still contagious? That’s the big question! So we have decided to start walking after seven days in isolation. We are going to get private accommodations and social distance. So really if you get Covid it’s your choice on what to do.

Good luck
Buen Camino my friend
Pete
Thank you, Pete, for your reply and also, great to hear you are now feeling so much better and can resume your Camino soon.
 
And plan extra time if you can.
Very good tip. What we did this year was plan to walk to Muxía/Finisterre at the end, knowing that it was a buffer against Covid or something else unexpected. When I isolated in Ourense for four days after testing positive, it meant that we had to abandon the coastal walk but building those extra days in to begin with allowed us to still have enough time to reach Santiago before Wendy needed to return home for work.
 
Thank you everyone for your responses. There seems to be a similar thread in the replies and that is, it's primarily up to you as to how you handle your personal covid situation. There doesn't seem to be any protocol around where you stay if infected, just an available accommodation? I wonder if there is the necessity, moral or otherwise to advise the owner/landlord of the accommodation, of your circumstances? In any case, it seems the world is just trying to get on with it, life that is, with covid...erring on the side of caution and taking precautionary measures we'd expect of others should we become ill, would seem to be the best way to proceed.
 
The focus is on reducing the risk of failure through being well prepared. 2nd ed.
Very good tip. What we did this year was plan to walk to Muxía/Finisterre at the end, knowing that it was a buffer against Covid or something else unexpected. When I isolated in Ourense for four days after testing positive, it meant that we had to abandon the coastal walk but building those extra days in to begin with allowed us to still have enough time to reach Santiago before Wendy needed to return home for work.
Thanks, jungleboy, our thoughts exactly, we have built in an additional five days in the event of the unknown, or possible extension to Finisterre.
 
Hi
I am feeling better and I’m ready to start walking tomorrow. But has enough time gone by? Am I still contagious? That’s the big question! So we have decided to start walking after seven days in isolation. We are going to get private accommodations and social distance. So really if you get Covid it’s your choice on what to do.

Good luck
Buen Camino my friend
Pete
Thank you Pete, for thinking of others. I took it very easy after Covid and I'm glad I did.
 
I caught Covid 7 days in on the Via Gebennensis ( day 7 out of Geneva) My only symptom was fatigue; well shoot I figured of course I am tired, I am walking 15 miles a day! A camino angel took my husband and I in ( he never tested positive) and we stayed at her home in Faramans, France for 5 nights. The fatigue went to GI symptoms with loss of appetite and diarrhea. Next five days were spent in Lyon in an Airbnb, followed by 4 more days in an Airbnb in Oviedo where at last was able to start the Primitivo on May 24. That was 2 full weeks of recovery! I am happy for the people who were able to resume their caminos after a week or less. I guess I am posting this is for those who get Covid: to be prepared for a longer recovery period and how you will deal with it. When I got home was depressed and out of sorts as my camino wasn't what I thought it should be. (didn't make it to Le Puy nor able to do the Salvador as planned.) I am still sorting things out but thinking about when and where my next Camino will be. Thanks for listening.
 
The focus is on reducing the risk of failure through being well prepared. 2nd ed.
I have been hearing on the news recently that reinfection with covid is fairly common. If I caught covid, I do not feel that once per camino was all that fate could send me. I shall take precautions and hope that I do not get it at all.
 
I caught Covid on the Primitivo. I woke one morning not feeling very well, and I used a RAT test to check - it is worthwhile carrying a couple imo, as well as a few good masks. The test was immediately positive.

Wearing a mask, and keeping my distance, I asked the hostess of the accommodation for assistance to find me somewhere I could self isolate (she was full). Neither the provincial government or the national government required me to self isolate but I did not want to be responsible for giving it to anyone else.

My hostess found me a tiny flat in the next town, opposite the Albergue, and arranged for me to be transported there by taxi. It was perfect. The hospitalero in the Albergue provided me with supplies when needed, and I stayed for 7 days, until my symptoms had completely disappeared and I felt well.

If my hostess had not been so helpful I would have done the same as @trecile, and found something through booking.com

I did have Covid cover on my travel insurance, but did not use it as the tiny flat did not cost me much more than I would have been paying for accommodation anyway.

If you do intend to claim on travel insurance, make sure you get an official test done.
I will be doing the Camino Frances in sept. I'm fully vaccinated and in good health but I am 73 yrs old. I'm interested to know the availability of covid treatments such as paxlovid and covid monoclonal antibodies along the Camino Frances route?
 
I will be doing the Camino Frances in sept. I'm fully vaccinated and in good health but I am 73 yrs old. I'm interested to know the availability of covid treatments such as paxlovid and covid monoclonal antibodies along the Camino Frances route?
Steve, while I was in France, I was in a rural location without access to a physician, but I really didn't need it either. You might want to have an arrangement with your private physician that if you did get Covid and thought a Covid tx was necessary, the rx could be sent to you via email. You may not conveniently be in a location that would even stock it.
 
The 2024 Camino guides will be coming out little by little. Here is a collection of the ones that are out so far.
I will be doing the Camino Frances in sept. I'm fully vaccinated and in good health but I am 73 yrs old. I'm interested to know the availability of covid treatments such as paxlovid and covid monoclonal antibodies along the Camino Frances route?
Good question. I also was fully vaccinated (4 shots) and am close to you in age. Before leaving Australia I did ask my GP about the anti-virals, but at that stage they were very new and the supply heavily restricted.

As it happened I was not sick enough to warrant any treatment. Cold symptoms, but that is all. I seem to have made a full recovery.
 
I caught Covid 7 days in on the Via Gebennensis ( day 7 out of Geneva) My only symptom was fatigue; well shoot I figured of course I am tired, I am walking 15 miles a day! A camino angel took my husband and I in ( he never tested positive) and we stayed at her home in Faramans, France for 5 nights. The fatigue went to GI symptoms with loss of appetite and diarrhea. Next five days were spent in Lyon in an Airbnb, followed by 4 more days in an Airbnb in Oviedo where at last was able to start the Primitivo on May 24. That was 2 full weeks of recovery! I am happy for the people who were able to resume their caminos after a week or less. I guess I am posting this is for those who get Covid: to be prepared for a longer recovery period and how you will deal with it. When I got home was depressed and out of sorts as my camino wasn't what I thought it should be. (didn't make it to Le Puy nor able to do the Salvador as planned.) I am still sorting things out but thinking about when and where my next Camino will be. Thanks for listening.
So sorry to hear your story, Suzanne A; it must be difficult accepting that your Camino was so significantly affected. I hope you are able to make your way back to your Camino and have a much more positive experience soon.
 
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But has enough time gone by? Am I still contagious? That’s the big question! So we have decided to start walking after seven days in isolation. We are going to get private accommodations and social distance. So really if you get Covid it’s your choice on what to do.
If you wanted to be sure you weren’t spreading it, one would take another over-the-counter Covid test. I was able to get these in Spain for about three euros each. Once you test negative you’re unlikely to be contagious. Typically that takes 8 to 10 days. You probably had Covid for a few days before you started showing symptoms.

(The over-the-counter tests aren’t as sensitive as the PCR tests, which might show you’re positive for weeks after you’re no longer really contagious)

I came back with Covid from Spain. I started having symptoms that day I got home. Lucky I am paranoid and wore a KN95 mask the whole time on the plane. I hope I didn’t give it to anybody else. My doctor gave me a prescription to the Paxlovid antiviral, and told me if I wasn’t experiencing symptoms after five days, I could go out in public as long as I wear a mask for the following five days.
 
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I caught Covid while on the Camino in Portugal. At the time, the required isolation period was 7 days. I found an apartment on booking.com, and stayed there until my isolation was over.
I have a couple of friends who also got Covid while on the Camino, and they did pretty much the same.
Thanks for the info! I’m in the same boat now. After isolating, did you try and reserve private albergues or did you go on as normal? Thanks
 
The one from Galicia (the round) and the one from Castilla & Leon. Individually numbered and made by the same people that make the ones you see on your walk.
Thanks for the info! I’m in the same boat now. After isolating, did you try and reserve private albergues or did you go on as normal? Thanks
I planned to stay in private places, but unfortunately my Camino ended soon after my Covid isolation because I broke my arm. 😢

Before I got Covid I stayed in private rooms wherever
possible, but there were three places were I stayed in albergue dorms.
 
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