“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 in governments, which implemented knee-jerk restrictions in complete contravention of advice from the WHO – the global expert,” said Willie Walsh, Iata Director General, on December 8.

The airline body has already been vocal in its opposition to travel restrictions being thrust upon one region (southern Africa), and has now added its voice once again to the throng of those calling for governments to follow the advice of the World Health Organization and immediately rescind travel bans that were introduced in response to the Omicron variant of the coronavirus.

The WHO is just one of the public health organisations that have advised against travel curbs to contain the spread of Omicron and believes that travel bans can even work against efforts to contain the virus.

Disincentivisation

WHO advice for international traffic in relation to the SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant says: “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. All countries should ensure that the measures are regularly reviewed and updated when new evidence becomes available on the epidemiological and clinical characteristics of Omicron or any other variants of concern.”

The WHO’s advice to international traffic also says that where measures such as screening or quarantine are used, these 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, time-limited and applied with respect to travellers’ dignity, human rights and fundamental freedoms, as outlined in the International Health Regulations,” says the advice.

Move away from the mess

A media release from Iata said the goal should be to move away from “the unco-ordinated, 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,” said Walsh. “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.”

At the ICAO High Level Conference on Covid-19 (HLCC 2021), held in October, governments made commitments in the ICAO HLCC Ministerial Declaration: “We also commit to a multilayer 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 harmonized 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.

The European Centre for Disease Control and Prevention 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”.

“Once a measure is put in place, it is very challenging to get governments to consider reviewing it, let alone removing it, even when there is plenty of evidence pointing in that direction,” said Walsh. “That is why it is essential that governments commit to a review period when any new measure is introduced. If there is an over-reaction – as we believe is the case with Omicron – we must have a way to limit the damage and get back on the right track. And even in more normal circumstances, we must recognise that our understanding of the disease can grow exponentially even in a short period of time. Whatever measures are in place need to be constantly justified against the latest and most accurate scientific knowledge.”