THE International Air Transport Association (IATA) is calling for
governments to follow World Health Organisation (WHO) advice and
immediately rescind travel bans introduced in response to the
coronavirus Omicron variant.
Part
of the WHO advice states, “Blanket travel bans will not prevent the
international spread, and they place a heavy burden on lives and
livelihoods. In addition, they can adversely impact global health
efforts during a pandemic by disincentivising countries to report and
share epidemiological and sequencing data.”
It
also notes that that states implementing measures such as screening or
quarantine “need to be defined following a thorough risk assessment
process informed by the local epidemiology in departure and destination
countries and by the health system and public health capacities in the
countries of departure, transit and arrival.
“All measures should be commensurate with the risk, be time-limited
and applied with respect to travellers’ dignity, human rights and
fundamental freedoms, as outlined in the International Health
Regulations.”
IATA director general Willie Walsh points out that “after nearly two
years with Covid-19 we know a lot about the virus and the inability of
travel restrictions to control its spread. But the discovery of the
Omicron variant induced instant amnesia on governments, which
implemented knee-jerk restrictions in complete contravention of advice
from WHO—the global expert.”
Reconsider all Omicron measures
“The goal is to move away from the
uncoordinated, evidence absent, risk-unassessed mess that travellers
face. As governments agreed at ICAO, and in line with the WHO advice,
all measures should be time-bound and regularly reviewed. It is
unacceptable that rushed decisions have created fear and uncertainty
among travellers just as many are about to embark on year-end visits to
family or hard-earned vacations,” said Walsh.
Walsh continues, “We also commit to a multi-layer risk management
strategy for international civil aviation, which is adaptable,
proportionate, non-discriminatory and guided by scientific evidence in
close cooperation and coordination with the public health sector, with
agreed practices harmonised to the greatest extent possible, for air
travel purposes, using commonly accepted epidemiological criteria,
testing requirements and vaccination, and underpinned by regular review,
monitoring and timely information-sharing among States.
“Despite this clear commitment very few governments have addressed
early over-reactions to Omicron. With the European CDC already
signalling that a de-escalation of measures will likely be needed in the
coming weeks, governments must urgently put actions behind the
commitments that they made at ICAO,” said Walsh.
European Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (ECDC), in the
latest update to its Threat Assessment Brief on the implications of
Omicron in Europe, notes that “given the increasing number of cases and
clusters in the EU/EEA without a travel history or contact with
travel-related cases, it is likely that within the coming weeks the
effectiveness of travel-related measures will significantly decrease,
and countries should prepare for a rapid and measured de-escalation of
such measures.”
Source: WiT