In what will cheer the tourism industry and travellers, the Government has allowed fully vaccinated passengers from 82 countries to skip the mandatory quarantine period, from February 14. The requirement of compulsory on-arrival testing for passengers from certain countries identified as “at-risk” has also been removed. These guidelines, from the Ministry of Health, apply to countries with whom India has a pact of reciprocity and include the U.K., the U.S., Canada, Australia and New Zealand, or those which see significant traffic in and out of India. Currently, India has air bubble agreements with 35 countries. The Government had earlier moved to resume international flights from December 15, but withdrew the decision due to the Omicron variant. The tourism industry estimates that COVID-19 has caused losses of ₹150 lakh-crore since March 2020. Prior to the pandemic, India had at least 1.1 crore inbound tourists and 2.7 crore outbound tourists annually, say industry estimates, and the new relaxations appear to be in line to recoup these numbers.
There are sound epidemiological reasons for the decision. India’s daily trajectory of fresh COVID-19 cases is declining — from close to 3,00,000 cases a day on January 24, to around 58,000 cases a day now. It bears remembering that this precipitous fall — the speed of which is unusual compared to previous waves — is also due to a change in testing attitudes. The easy availability of rapid antigen tests that can be self-administered has seen more cases being registered outside the system of Government-tracked RT-PCR testing and not reflecting in official case counts. Overall, while the relative mildness of the Omicron variant, compared to the Delta variant, has meant that many of those infected did not need hospitalisation, the availability of vaccines has also contributed to the third wave posing a diminished health threat. Though deaths continued to rise, it was not to the same degree as earlier though a full reckoning will take more time after excess death tallies from States start to become public. Finally, the varied results internationally from booster doses, in that they were not enough to deter transmission, have led to a broader acceptance that the coronavirus cannot be eliminated by vaccines alone but can be repelled, over time, with a mix of approaches such as wearing masks, vaccination and accepting short lockdowns. Moreover, there is also no situation where herd immunity will ensure elimination of a virus as breakthrough infections and reinfections are rife. The opening of schools and the normalising of air travel imply that the world must learn to prioritise equitable health care and improve hygiene — yet move forward, reclaim and repair the social and economic remnants of the pre-pandemic period.
