According to many countries the restrictions on non-essential travels are in place for health reasons. However, traveling to see our loved ones is both essential and not a high risk to people’s health.
1. The World Health Organization (WHO) is not advising states to restrict the movement of people. On February 29 they report that: “Travel measures that significantly interfere with international traffic may only be justified at the beginning of an outbreak, as they may allow countries to gain time, even if only a few days, to rapidly implement effective preparedness measures. Such restrictions must be based on a careful risk assessment, be proportionate to the public health risk, be short in duration, and be reconsidered regularly as the situation evolves.“ “Travel bans to affected areas or denial of entry to passengers coming from affected areas are usually not effective in preventing the importation of cases but may have a significant economic and social impact. “ The outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic was declared on March 12th, 2020. At that time, countries weren’t prepared for a pandemic. There was a lack of masks, hand sanitizers, disinfectants, and test capacities as well as a lack of knowledge about the virus, its impacts, its spread, and its cure. Measures had to be put in place to protect people and people had to learn to adopt hygiene rules and maintain social distancing. At that time travel restrictions were helpful to gain time to learn and prepare. Now on July 2nd, 2020, almost 4 months after the declaration of the pandemic this is fortunately no longer the case. 2. Besides that, Ireland has never closed its borders but instead put a mandatory two week quarantine in place. With this Ireland has still contained the pandemic. With a peak on April 10th with 1,169 new cases reported a day, there have been just 13 new cases reported on June 20th. 3. At the beginning of the pandemic travels have led to the spread of the virus (For example: Belgian tourists returning from their skiing trip in Northern Italy) but this is no longer the case. People now know that flu or cold symptoms could indicate an infection with COVID-19 and that they should not then travel or go out in public. Airlines would not transport people that show such symptoms. Still some countries report that new numbers of infections were brought from outside (China, New Zealand, now Serbia). But those never lead to an outbreak. Outbreaks now happen in slaughterhouses or agricultural industries . The remaining risk can be contained by mandating a quarantine and/or a requirement to show a negative test result. 4. There are and always have been exceptions for what governments have defined as “essential” travels. Traveling of unmarried partners and family members aren’t of a greater risk than of spouses, etc. Mandatory quarantine and testing will ensure that people traveling from a third country will only be in public when there is no risk that they will spread the virus. And such travels are “essential”. Our love and the pain we feel from being separated is the same as that of married couples. Being separated indefinitely in times of drastic changes and uncertainties carries a high risk for mental health issues (https://docs.google.com/document/d/1wPRlc4hW_QUNr8ALRmlKuuSYFn9KIhZW4IpvkTu6zgs/edit?usp=sharing). It is essential to travel to see our beloved ones for our mental health and the health of everyone can continue to be ensured by mandatory quarantine or testing. |