How immunisation could open up your holiday plans
The coronavirus pandemic is still extremely serious. Families are grieving: more than 108,000 people have died from Covid-19 in the UK.
The virus spread rapidly across the world and into the UK by air travel. And the UK lockdown means holidays at home or abroad are currently illegal.
But many people are looking ahead to later in 2021 and the opportunities for future holidays.
With the UK well ahead of other major European nations in its vaccination programme to protect against
coronavirus, millions of prospective travellers are likely to have obtained both jabs by the time international journeys become feasible once more.
They could find themselves at an advantage. Increasingly many countries are introducing “immunotourism” policies that give more freedom to vaccinated travellers – and sometimes to people who have recovered from Covid-19.
Other nations and regions are busily immunising themselves against tourists: relying on jabs to confer protection on their own people, and then opening the doors to international visitors.
These are the key questions and answers.
Define ‘immunotourism’?
The term describes the growing number of ways in which your options as a traveller may be determined by antibodies to coronavirus.
The immunity conferred as a result of your own vaccination (or recovery from Covid) does not give total protection. But it may remove or reduce obligations for testing and/or quarantine, or even enable completely restriction-free access to countries, regions or cruise ships.
Some countries and regions are adopting a complementary approach, with immunotourism strategies based on vaccinating the local population.
An example of how it works?
Several nations in eastern Europe are leading the way with new policies.
Estonia offers quarantine exemption for travellers who have had Covid-19 in the past six months or been vaccinated against the virus. Qualified candidates escape the current 10 days of self-isolation required for arrivals from abroad (visitors from the UK must spend two weeks in self-isolation).
The new move emulates a policy in effect in Romania.
As proof, vaccinated travellers will need to provide “an immunisation passport”, or a vaccination certificate with a fair amount of detail. People who have had coronavirus (currently numbering nearly 4 million in the UK) will need a detailed letter from their doctor.
Where do I get an ‘immunisation passport’?
That is the big problem facing travellers. There is no international agreement on such a document. Instead, a range of participants are coming up with options that they hope will be more widely adopted.
At the root of all this uncertainty is the problem of keeping personal health information confidential while at the same time sharing essential details with the authorities who demand evidence of an individual’s suitability to travel.
Some national governments are working on their own certification, such as Denmark – whose finance minister, Morten Bodskov, is promising “a digital corona passport” to facilitate business travel.
The idea is that Danish travellers will be able to negotiate their way around Europe and the world using a national authentication system.
But airlines – and frustrated travellers – are keen on an internationally agreed solution.
What are the choices?
The Travel Pass initiative from the International Air Transport Association (Iata) is probably the most prominent proposal. It is an app-based system that incorporates layers of information.