Patchwork Of Traveler Testing & Quarantine Policies Cause Confusion; WHO Says Travelers Should Be Prepared For Sudden Changes
Pandemics & Emergencies 07/08/2020 •
Photo Credit: Jon Osborne

A World Health Organization spokesperson on Friday said that the Organization is not well-positioned to make specific recommendations about when, where, and how travelers should be tested or quarantined for COVID-19 as countries reopen aviation, deferring the policy question to national governments.

“Some of it is really dependent on what your national authorities ask of you. WHO provides guidance to governments, but then the governments will have their own recommendations as to when you should be tested or retested, how soon before travel you need to have taken your test, etc. So some of those [questions] are not really on our plate to be able to answer,” WHO spokesperson Nyka Alexander said at live-streamed WHO Q&A on international travel.

Instead, the agency recommended travelers keep abreast of quarantine and testing policies in their countries of origin and destination countries.

“The limitations or the restrictions are changing every day because of the evolution of the outbreak,” said Carmen Dolea, head of the WHO International Health Regulations Secretariat. “People that decide to travel need to be to keep themselves abreast of all these changes… so they can plan their accordingly.”

In the early months of the global health emergency, senior WHO officials, including Drector General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus and Emergencies Executive Director Mike Ryn repeatedly advised countries against imposting any travel restrictions at all.  But as the virus spread across the planet, most countries took unilateral action, locking down all but essential aviation.

Now, the patchwork of traveler quarantine and testing policies emerging across countries as skies reopen has still left many people confused and sometimes in a lurch, as countries abruptly change policies without notice.  However, in the last meeting of WHO’s COVID-19 emergency committee, experts abstained from issuing any specific recommendations about how to safely resume aviation, saying only that countries should periodically review restrictions to ensure that they are well founded.

In July, the European Union sought to devise a coherent regional approach, opening travel between all countries of the EU region and compiling a “safe list” of other nations, like Canada and New Zealand, which have low levels of infection and whose nationals can also freely enter the EU.  Travelers from countries on the so-called  “green list”, which is being updated regularly,  are not required to undergo additional COVID-19 testing before or after arrival, nor are they required to quarantine.

However, as the summer wore on, it became apparent that even a spot on the safe list isn’t enough to guarantee ease of travel, as different countries that were part of the zone began to steer their own course anyway.

On July 26th, United Kingdom citizens vacationing in Spain had their return plans abruptly changed after the UK removed Spain from its “safe” country list – meanting that UK citizens returning from holidays in Spain would have to quarantine at home for two weeks upon landing.

Different Approaches To Traveler Quarantine And Testing

Other countries, such as France, are now requiring travelers from countries outside the safe list to arrive with proof of a negative COVID-19 test taken 2-3 days before arrival, take a test upon entry into France, or undergo a mandatory 2 week quarantine.

Germany has required all travelers from risk areas with more than 50 per 100,000 infections to quarantine for two weeks upon arrival, unless they have a signed doctors note indicating they have tested negative for COVID-19 in the 48 hours before landing. Germany has also announced they will be requiring travelers from risk areas to take mandatory COVID-19 tests upon arrival in the near future.

The United Kingdom has continued with its blanket two week mandatory quarantine for travelers from non-safe countries, despite pressure from the airline industry to move towards a traveler testing approach.

Heathrow Airport Chief Executive Officer John Halloway-Kane said in a letter to the UK Prime Minister that the havoc caused by the Spain flip-flop reiterates the need for the UK to embrace passenger testing.

Halloway-Kane wants the UK to take a “test upon arrival” approach. Passengers would be required to take a coronavirus test on arrival, quarantine for 8 days and then take a second test to determine whether they picked up an infection during flight.

That would at least reduce the amount of time that returning travelers have to quarantine.  But in the currently volatile atmosphere, even adding passenger testing to the equation may not diminish the changeability of travel policies. Countries make their safe entry lists based on the epidemiological situation in the country of origin. If a spike in cases in the country of origin occurs, the entry requirements for travelers can still change quickly, as was the case recently with Spain.

As a result, many governments are simply recommending that their citizens avoid traveling altogether unless it is essential. And if they do, they need to keep up with changing travel requirements as much as possible. Switzerland recommends travelers contact a country’s embassy on the day of travel to determine whether entry is still possible.

WHO also is recommending that people avoid non-essential travel, particularly for people with pre existing conditions or above the age of 65.  In a radical departure from its earlier resistance to the public wearing of face masks, WHO has now become an enthusiastic proponent of the use of masks, particularly in closed environments like planes, trains and buses, as well as stores.

And, in fact, the Organization kicked off a new #WearAMask challenge on social media channels Friday.

The campaign, designed to promote wider public use of the masks in settings where COVID-19 is a risk, asks people to promote photos of their own reusable cloth masks. Such masks should be made of three-layers of fabric, including a knit or woven cotton inner layer, a polypropolene filter layer, and a water-resistant polyester or polyester-cotton blend outer layer for optimal efficacy, and can be easily made at home.

 

Image Credits: Flickr: Jon Osborne.

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