An AP Ex­plain­er by VIC­TO­RIA MILKO

(AP) — What hap­pens if I get COVID-19 while trav­el­ing?  De­pend­ing on your des­ti­na­tion, it could re­sult in an un­ex­pect­ed change in plans, such as be­ing re­quired to stay iso­lat­ed in a ho­tel.

It’s why the U.S. Cen­ters for Dis­ease Con­trol and Pre­ven­tion rec­om­mends that you have back­up plans ready if you’re trav­el­ing abroad. You might have to stay longer than planned if you test pos­i­tive.

In some places, you won’t be able to board flights un­til you test neg­a­tive. In oth­ers, you might al­so be re­quired to stay in a quar­an­tine fa­cil­i­ty.

Since re­sults from a PCR test can re­main pos­i­tive for weeks af­ter an in­fec­tion, those who have had COVID-19 might have to get doc­u­men­ta­tion from a doc­tor or health au­thor­i­ties say­ing they’ve re­cov­ered. Some trav­el on­ly re­quires an anti­gen test.

If you end up need­ing med­ical treat­ment, check with your em­bassy for sug­gest­ed health care providers. Keep in mind that some coun­tries still have over­whelmed health care sys­tems due to the pan­dem­ic.

Plan time for re­cov­ery since some coun­tries — in­clud­ing the U.S. — re­quire a neg­a­tive test for re-en­try. Ex­cep­tions to this pol­i­cy may be grant­ed on an “ex­treme­ly lim­it­ed” ba­sis, such as in the event of an emer­gency med­ical evac­u­a­tion or hu­man­i­tar­i­an cri­sis, says the CDC.

It al­so helps to be fi­nan­cial­ly pre­pared to pay un­ex­pect­ed bills. While it varies coun­try to coun­try, trav­ellers are of­ten re­spon­si­ble for costs as­so­ci­at­ed with any iso­la­tion or med­ical treat­ments need­ed.

Trav­el com­pa­nies sug­gest get­ting in­sur­ance that will cov­er the cost of treat­ment, iso­la­tion or resched­uled trav­el plans. Some coun­tries re­quire that you have in­sur­ance be­fore you’re al­lowed to en­ter.