Many Canadian Insce companies, Great West Life, Manulife, Canada Life to name a few, are now covering Covid or any other illness/accident while on vacation outside of Canada. Yesterday DH called Canada Life who we are covered with, to confirm what we had read in our news and they emailed us the new coverage policy. The cost of our coverage (up to 90 days away on each trip) is included in DH's pension benefits. Maybe some people do not realize that companies have changed their policies to include Covid.
We have 2+ weeks of timeshare booked in FL for late Oct./early Nov. & DH has been looking at flights & rental cars since even of the land border is still closed we are able to fly south. The flight prices aren't too bad from Toronto to Orlando but the rental car prices are crazy, both from an airport location or off site. If the Covid numbers are still high I'd rather stay home and stay healthy.
You're correct that insurers are providing out-of-country coverage. I also think Canadians need to put the risks into perspective. We all have this image of New York in April burned into our minds, and think that is what the whole of the US is like. We ignoring that our own rates have been going up recently, and now rival many perceived "hot spots" in the US . There is significant community spread going on in some areas of Canada right now. For example, the active case rate in Scottsdale, AZ (26 per 100k) is less than half that of Edmonton (68 active cases per 100,000). Orlando right now is around 79 cases per 100,000 and Palm Springs (where we will be for Christmas) is sitting at 61 cases per 100,000.
Each person needs to feel comfortable with the level of risk they are taking. The way I view it, my wife is safer sitting beside a pool in the sunshine than in the hospital where she works. Same goes for my kids - pool activities are less of a risk than being in a classroom with 24 other kids - even if it is south of the border.
The virus is transmitted by people, not geography. If you are going to Orlando, based on New York Times data, you would have to interact with around 1265 people before you would meet one that has covid. If you can limit your interactions on a daily basis to less than 20 people while taking proper precautions, the probability of getting covid on vacation is approaching 0.