Southeast Asia eyes vaccine passports
Moves can help reboot tourism, but experts cite need for common standards, regulation
Governments in Southeast Asia are considering vaccine passports to bring back international travelers and shore up economies, mulling cautious steps to reopen borders.
Thailand’s Ministry of Tourism and Sports has announced that it will shorten the quarantine period from 14 to seven days for vaccinated tourists, under a program that will begin on April 1. Media reports have said the country could also do away with quarantine later this year.
In Vietnam, Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc last week asked ministries to map out plans for a “COVID-19 vaccine passport”, according to Vietnamese news site VnExpress. Meanwhile, Singapore is expected to discuss with Australia the possibility of an air travel bubble which would allow quarantine-free entry to vaccinated travelers by mid-2021.
Vaccine passports may help reboot Southeast Asia’s hard-hit tourism sector, but governments need to proceed with caution, experts said.
“The adoption of health certificates or vaccine passports will be very important for the recovery of tourism in the region and beyond,” said Alexander Trupp, associate professor at the School of Hospitality at Sunway University in Malaysia.
However, he said this must go with other health and safety measures, and strong regulation.
Australia-based travel industry expert Carolyn Childs said she would suggest that governments test whether vaccine passports work through a pilot program first.
But many countries cannot wait for that, according to Childs, co-founder and CEO of MyTravelResearch.com, a market research company focused on the travel and tourism industry.
She said even though about 30 percent of people in Australia would like to visit Southeast Asia once borders open, that might increase the risk of virus transmission and raises the question of who gets to travel.
The World Health Organization has said that health passes tied to vaccinations may increase inequality until everyone has a COVID shot. The European Union is considering its own vaccine certificate for trips within the bloc.
Noting Southeast Asia’s tourismdependent economies, Childs said it is inevitable that regional countries will introduce vaccine passports.
“Tourism is so critical to many of the economies in Southeast Asia,” she noted.
Tourism accounts for more than 15 percent of Thailand’s economy. As the number of its foreign visitors fell over 80 percent to 6.7 million last year, Southeast Asia’s second-largest economy contracted 6.1 percent in 2020, its sharpest decline since 1998.
“We know that the vaccines are very good at preventing the disease, but whether or not the vaccine will prevent the spread (of COVID-19) is still a question,” said Maurizio Trevisan, dean of the College of Health Sciences at VinUniversity in Hanoi.
Even with a 95 percent efficacy rate of a COVID-19 vaccine, 5 percent of those vaccinated will get the disease in a milder form.
The good news is that studies have shown that when infected, vaccinated individuals carry a very small amount of the virus, which means the likelihood of them spreading it is low, said Trevisan.
With many studies taking place, Trevisan said, people will have a better sense of the chances that a vaccinated person spreads the virus.
In early March, China launched an app-based program that enables users to obtain a Chinese version of an international travel health certificate. Trevisan said different countries, including China and Southeast Asian countries, can work together to promote mutual recognition of vaccine passports.
Earlier examples show this is possible, Trevisan said, citing the proof of yellow fever vaccination requested by many countries for inbound visitors.
Childs, the travel industry expert, said the vaccine passport concept is expected to gain public acceptance in places that have low transmission rates, such as Singapore and Vietnam.
Childs said a better approach may be to develop a low-risk profile, of which the vaccine passport would make up just one part.
Trupp from Sunway University said a vaccine passport or digital health certificate should “serve as an assurance that a person has recovered from COVID-19 or has been vaccinated against it”.
“Importantly, for vaccine passports to work across international borders, there needs to be strong regulation and standardization,” said Trupp.