As West races back to travel, ‘zero-Covid’ economies like Hong Kong, Singapore and Australia face hermit risk

Early in the pandemic, Asia-Pacific countries learned to see border closures as their secret weapon to avoid countless deaths from Covid-19

Governments across the region now face the challenge of how to safely exit their self-isolation as the United States and Europe look towards reopening and kick-starting international travel for hundreds of millions of pandemic-weary citizens.

For authorities reliant on border controls to tame the virus, the path to reopening looks uncertain, experts say, as sluggish vaccine roll-outs, virus mutations, and an ingrained zero-tolerance mentality towards infections threaten to cut off Asia-Pacific economies from the world indefinitely.

 
“One of the issues is how you get the majority of society to accept a certain level of risk when you have markedly decreased the risks of death and a lot of disease and your health system being overwhelmed.”
 
On Monday, the European Union unveiled a road map under which people who were fully vaccinated would be able to visit the 27-member bloc for leisure and other non-essential reasons by June. Britain, where more than half the population has received at least one vaccine dose, is preparing to resume international travel on May 17 with the introduction of a traffic light system that will allow people travelling to “green countries” to avoid quarantine by taking a Covid-test upon their return. The US last month eased restrictions on the entry of international students from China, after lifting curbs on European students earlier this year.
 
By contrast, many Asia-Pacific economies have been slow to commit to lifting border restrictions, even for people who are vaccinated, a stance given fresh impetus by the humanitarian disaster unfolding in India, where a devastating second wave has resulted in daily cases passing the 400,000 mark.