Governments should roll back or refrain from using travel restrictions as the COVID-19 coronavirus is mainly being spread through local transmission rather than imported cases, a trade group of Asian airlines said.
“Given that the Covid-19 outbreak is now progressing across the globe, it is time for a fundamental rethink on travel restrictions,” the Association of Asia Pacific Airlines (AAPA) said in a statement.
“The proliferation of travel restrictions worldwide, and insufficient adherence to the International Health Regulations (IHR) are imposing enormous costs on society with little or no public health benefits,” Andrew Herdman, director general of AAPA said in a statement.
“Time for fundamental rethink.”
More than 90 countries have imposed travel restrictions, but only 45 states have informed the WHO of the measures and provided public health rationale, AAPA said. The airline industry has been strictly adhering to WHO and IATA guidelines on hygiene, including for cleaning aircraft and lounges, and it isn’t aware of any infections attributed to inflight transmission, he added.
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