IATA URGES GLOBAL GOVERNMENTS TO MAKE DATA-DRIVEN DECISIONS TO MANAGE THE REOPENING OF BORDERS

THE INTERNATIONAL AIR TRANSPORT ASSOCIATION (IATA) has urged governments to make data-driven decisions to manage the risks of COVID-19 when reopening borders to international travel. Strategies without quarantine measures can enable international travel to restart with a low risk of introduction of COVID-19 to the travel destination, it has argued.

“Data can and should drive policies on restarting global travel that manage COVID-19 risks to protect populations, revive livelihoods and boost economies,” said Willie Walsh, IATA’s Director General last month ( June).

IATA has cited evidence from multiple sources proving that vaccinations protect travellers from serious illness and death and ensure there is a low risk of introducing the virus into destination countries. The European Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (ECDC) has said “the likelihood of an infected vaccinated person transmitting the disease is currently assessed to be very low to low” while the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (US CDC) has stated that “with a 90 per cent effective vaccine, pre-travel testing, post-travel testing, and seven-day self-quarantine provide minimal additional benefit”. In addition, between February 25 and May 5, 202, 365,895 tests were conducted on passengers arriving to the UK who had been PCR negative before travel. Only 2.2 per cent tested positive for COVID-19 infection during universal quarantine measures after their arrival. Of these, more than half had travelled from so-called ‘red list’ countries considered very high risk. Removing them from the statistics would result in test positivity of 1.46 per cent. “Many governments continue to require universal quarantine—either hotel-managed or self-managed. This impedes the freedom of movement, discourages international travel and destroys employment in the travel and tourism sector. Data from the UK tells us that we can and must do better,” said Walsh.