Vaccine passport may be ‘least bad’ answer to Covid-19 travel curbs

Much has been reported in Britain about the possibility of adopting a type of Covid-19 vaccine “passport” for use not just in travelling but for entry to a variety of places, including theatres and pubs.

This has provoked a backlash from civil liberties campaigners who see it as just another example of big government trying to control people’s lives. But the concept appears to be growing in popularity, in Britain and in other parts of Europe — at least in terms of its use for international travel.

Only countries with a high percentage of vaccination of their populations will be able to participate in vaccine passport regimes and SA, with its excruciatingly slow vaccine rollout, runs the risk of being bypassed if vaccine passports become the norm.

A vaccine passport would typically hold a person’s SarsCoV-2 vaccination history on a smartphone or physical document in much the same way as current yellow fever vaccination documentation works. It has yet to be determined which international body would grant authority for verifying the authenticity of such certification.

As a precursor to a vaccine passport system, the UK has suggested a “traffic light” system for international travel. Foreign travel destinations will be categorised as green, amber or red, depending on their vaccination rate. Green would be high vaccination rate, while red would be low rate and amber in between. Red countries are believed to be an extension of those already on the travel ban.

Currently, there are 39 countries on that travel ban list. Non-British nationals and nonresidents are not permitted to enter England from those 39 countries. Those permitted to arrive in England from travel ban countries must undergo a 10-day quarantine in a government-supervised hotel, which starts at £1,750.

Green country arrivals would not need to self-isolate for 10 days, though they would need to have a pre-departure and post-arrival test.

Travellers arriving from amber countries would need to self-isolate at home for 10 days and take three Covid-19 tests: one prior to travel, one on day two of quarantine and one on day eight of quarantine.

This system has been slammed by UK travel authorities, who warn that the current high cost of testing will often exceed the actual package holiday cost.

Unless testing for the virus can be made extremely cheap or free and available in minutes rather than hours or days, it will render this process impractical.

TRIALLING

Denmark is trialling the Corona pass, which certifies that someone has been fully vaccinated, has tested negative in the previous 72 hours, or has tested positive 2-12 weeks prior, thus conferring immunity to the virus. It is not yet being used for travel, but is used for entry to hairdressers and similar establishments, restaurants, museums, theatres and cinemas.

Denmark’s Covid-19 testing is free and rapid, which makes for wide acceptance of the Corona pass.

Israel’s “green passport” is well documented and combined with an exceptionally high vaccination rate, is helping return that country to normality.

The World Health Organization (WHO) doesn’t like vaccine passports for two reasons: first, because it believes it will worsen vaccine inequity and secondly because it has not yet determined whether or not vaccinated people can still transmit the virus.

But if vaccine passports or something similar are not implemented soon, the global travel industry risks being caught in a nasty no-man’s land situation, where travellers will continue to be at the mercy of costly PCR (polymerase chain reaction) swab-testing procedures or expensive quarantine hotels.

It could take years to recover from such a situation and in the meantime, international travel would only be affordable by the wealthy with plenty of time to spare.

Vaccine passports, which would allow free, unfettered travel between countries that have high vaccination rates, would appear to be the least bad solution to what appears to be a daunting problem.

It is not ideal and there will be certain categories of people who will be unable to provide proof of vaccination. But at least it would get international travel moving again without unnecessary extra costs and bureaucracy.