New Worldwide Travel Restrictions And Travel Bans Introduced Under Threat Of Omicron

The travel world has been turned on its head in just one week. With the identification of a new SARS-CoV-2 variant, which the WHO has called Omicron, many countries are rethinking travel restrictions and travel bans just as the world was opening up for the holiday season–Sunday was the biggest day for travel across the U.S. since before the pandemic started, with almost 2.5 million people screened by the TSA.

And whilst there are no certainties and no updated information on how much of an impact this new variant will have on travel restrictions, here’s an update on which countries have changed travel rules and regulations in the past few days:

• Over 44 countries, including Canada, the U.S. and the EU bloc, introduced travel bans to several African countries (including South Africa, Mozambique, Botswana, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Lesotho and Eswatini).
• Japan, Israel and Morocco closed their borders entirely, as a precaution, until there are more developments from scientists about the likely epidemiological impact.
• other countries have delayed the reopening of borders. Australia, for instance, has pushed back its intended grand reopening from 1 December by a fortnight to 15 December, as reported by the BBC.
• Many countries are staying put on the current strategy to keep borders open. As reported by Axios, President Biden is planning to announce a strategy for winter, “not with shutdowns or lockdowns, but with more widespread vaccinations, boosters, testing and more.” Forbes reported how Malaysia and Singapore decided, on the same day that Japan closed, to reopen as planned. New Zealand has also declared that it will stick to its current strategy to reopen and “live with Covid”, as reported by The Guardian.
• And others are keeping open borders with tweaked travel restrictions. The U.K., for instance, has reintroduced PCR tests on Day 2 for all arrivals, regardless of vaccination status and country of origin, and travelers must self-isolate until the test result comes through as negative (as reported by The Telegraph).

Travel bans have been polarising in the past 18 months. Many are not sure if they work overall in terms of reducing the impact of Covid-19 transmission and infection rates, as they might simply encourage people to travel quickly to get into place for when travel bans come into effect, leading to airports and crowds that are even more packed than would otherwise be the case. As reported by CNN, the International Air Transport Association (IATA) warned against travel bans, believing them to be lacking as a long-term solution in managing the spread of variants.

Others believe travel bans are worthwhile in the early days of new variants, as they may slow down their progress, allowing scientists to find answers and enabling politicians to create effective strategies.

However, whilst one long-term solution is obviously increasing worldwide vaccination rates so that new variants cannot develop, CNN belives that “the new raft of travel bans targeting southern Africa underscores a pandemic-long trend–it’s often every country for itself.”