Opinion | To restart travel in the pandemic era, we need an international health pass we can trust
- Travel bubbles are a good first step, but without the ability to trust Covid-19 tests – and eventually vaccine records – across borders, many countries will feel compelled to retain travel bans and mandatory quarantines for as long as the pandemic persists
Establishing travel bubbles is a good first step. But the challenge is connecting them, and there is no “one size fits all” set of measures for all bubbles or even countries. It would be impossible to reach agreement on this on a global basis.
Each country needs the ability to implement its own flexible and nuanced border policies based on more reliable assessments of the health status of incoming travellers. A key point is that detection of infection improves significantly by testing more than once during the usual incubation period of five to six days. Testing 72 to 96 hours before departure, and then again on arrival, covers a single incubation period well. Adding a health declaration that checks for clinical symptoms and risk factors provides additional biosecurity.
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Hong Kong, Singapore announce plans for quarantine-free travel bubble
What is needed to reliably test twice during an incubation period across two countries is a system to combine test results from certified labs across borders and time zones.