Elimination of Testing Boosts Worldwide Economy

Since the beginning of the Pandemic in 2020, restrictions for travellers were placed by most governments in the world to reduce the spreading of the virus. Unfortunately, there are still high COVID-19 positive test rates in some countries, with high death toll and with different variants, making the Governments take measures to restrict the entrance to foreign travellers or people from countries on the red lists.

The International Air Transport Association (IATA) urged governments to accelerate the lifting of travel restrictions as COVID-19 continues to evolve from the pandemic to the endemic phase. IATA called for the removal of all barriers to travel (including quarantine and testing) for those who are fully vaccinated, allowing unvaccinated travellers with a negative pre-departure antigen test result to travel without quarantine, removing travel bans, and accelerating the loosening of travel restrictions, recognising that travellers do not represent a greater risk of spreading COVID-19 than already exists in the general population.

The failure of travel restrictions introduced after the detection and notification of the Omicron variant to limit international spread demonstrates the ineffectiveness of such measures over time. According to a study from the UK, travel restrictions anywhere in the world have had little impact on the spread of COVID 19, including the Omicron variant. France and Switzerland have recognised this and are among the first to begin removing the measures.

The Philippines, Denmark, and Morocco are lifting the restrictions from February as well, so, you will be able to travel to these fantastic destinations having already the full scheme of vaccines with no need for quarantine.

The fact that IATA calls for the elimination of testing and quarantine means a boost for the world economy which needs a progressive reactivation mainly for the tourism, aviation, and trade-in/commerce, the most concerning problems for travellers being the restriction between countries. With the lifting of the travelling restrictions, the people with a complete scheme of vaccinations will be able to travel and get back to a normal life in the best scenario, or at least a life where Covid is an endemic problem like HIV, cancer, dengue fever, yellow fever, etc. These are still a concern for us, but we can only keep taking care of ourselves from these diseases which are the death cause of many people in every corner of the world on daily basis.