Opinion | Living with coronavirus: global travel cannot restart without common rules to certify those free of Covid-19
- Globally accepted norms must be developed before cross-border travel bubbles can be set up, specifying what tests are acceptable at which labs
- The initial chaos caused by Hong Kong’s new travel rules highlights the need for such a digital health code
American and Hong Kong colleagues trying to get back to the city were anxious and confused by the new government travel requirements.
“How can we get a pre-boarding test within 72 hours in San Francisco?” “But there’s no space on the computerised lab form used in the US to put our passport number as the rules require.” “The US government doesn’t certify laboratories, it’s impossible to get a letter to fulfil the new requirement!”
The situation seemed chaotic. Airport personnel, legally liable to make sure each Hong-Kong-bound traveller met the new requirements, were rejecting passengers based on paperwork technicalities. One group member wrote that only 10 people got cleared on her recent flight from New York’s JFK airport, and more than 30 other passengers got turned away at the boarding counter.
