The Washington Post recently spoke with Ed Daly, Editor-in-Chief of WorldAware's Global Intelligence Division, about the E.U. ban against American travelers. As of July 1, the E.U. began to allow international arrivals from certain countries, but the United States was not included on this list. The reason behind the exclusion is due to the US greatly exceeding European countries average of COVID-19 cases per 100,000 people. Currently, the US average is 145 cases per 100,000 people, while the E.U.

As the hotel industry navigates returning leisure and business travelers during the COVID-19 pandemic, travel managers are figuring out the amount of business travel that can be conducted. Several travel managers now work closely with COVID-19 planning teams and committees to obtain approval for business travel. A wide variety of scenarios are being projected regarding the amount of business travel that can approved based on current COVID-19 data, subject to change as future data is made available.

Surveys show over half of Americans are planning to travel this summer, with planned road trips up 72% compared to last summer. However, factors including fears of the risks from a possible second wave of COVID-19, future civil unrest and potential for continuing decline in the economy makes predicting American travel behavior in the near-term difficult. Furthermore, these risks may keep potential travelers home.

As airline travel slowly resumes, travelers are noticing small changes to screening procedures at airports across the US. TSA officials confirm changes have been in progress since the COVID-19 pandemic began, such as screeners wearing face masks and practicing social distancing, while allowing passengers to carry-on larger quantities of hand sanitizer and wear face masks, as long as they are lowered during identity verification security checkpoints. Further changes lie ahead, in particular to health screening procedures.

As we work our way through business recovery, and organizations navigate the phases of reopening, questions linger about the retail industry and what, if anything, will be different. While the retail industry has been historically resilient, it has been transformed by the COVID-19 pandemic. Insights into the current nature of consumerism and lessons learned as the crisis unfolded may foretell a permanent change. 

The travel industry has been left changed by the COVID-19 pandemic. Airlines have been blocking off middle seats and dropping consumer-unfriendly policies in an attempt to maintain social distancing and incentivize travel.  Car rentals, hotels and vacation rentals have made efforts to emphasize improved cleaning measures in between guests. Travel insurance has become more restrictive and pricier to allow for "cancel for any reason" policies. Cruise lines have canceled most of their trips through July. 

Organizational concerns relating to COVID-19 has forced organizations to examine the gaps in their risk management policies and procedures. WorldAware founder, Bruce McIndoe, explains how WorldAware has provided clients the situational analysis and resources to minimize their exposure risk throughout the pandemic. 

As movement restrictions and quarantine measures continue to be implemented to curb the spread of COVID-19, people are trying to make fewer trips to the grocery store and buy larger quantities of food. WorldAware's senior director of food safety and contamination prevention, Gary Weber, explains why expiration dates can be ignored for certain foods in an article by Huffington Post.

As COVID-19 continues to make its impact across industries, Dr. Gary Weber, senior director for food safety and contamination prevention at WorldAware, weighs in on how the crisis is affecting food and the supply chain in an article by CNBC.

"There are no real threats as much as supply chain adjustments, and certainly no shortage of food,” said Weber. U.S. dairy farmers are being forced to dump milk from a reduction in demand. "School lunch programs purchase a lot of milk, cheese, butter, and other products,” noted Weber.