The International Air Transport Association (IATA) has asked governments to follow the advice of the World Health Organization (WHO) and immediately rescind travel bans that were placed on Nigeria, South Africa and others.
This was disclosed by the global aviation body via a statement released recently.
According to IATA, public health organizations, including the WHO, have advised against travel curbs to contain the spread of Omicron.
It stated:
WHO advice for international traffic in relation to the SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant states that 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 disincentivizing 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.
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IATA’s Director-General, Willie Walsh, said:
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, time-limited and applied with respect to travellers’ dignity, human rights and fundamental freedoms, as outlined in the International Health Regulations.
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 the WHO- the global expert.
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.
The industry demands governments to implement commitments that they have made through ICAO.
ICAO HLCC Ministerial Declaration says:
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.
Walsh added:
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.
