Travel Bans Due to Covid-19
Since the COVID-19 struck in late 2020, many countries across the world and also regions decided to impose restrictions such as quarantines, entry bans and even other restrictions such as prohibiting their citizens and even recent travellers to move into or out of most affected cities or places.
That not being enough, some other countries and regions also decided to impose worldwide restrictions that apply to all foreign countries and even territories, and even prohibiting their citizens from travelling overseas.
Also heightened by the unwillingness to travel from many people across the world, the restrictions have resulted in a massive negative economic and even social impact on the travel industry in these regions.
Due to a longer time of all these restrictions, business travel and also international conferencing has been forced to decline as firms and governments switch to other alternatives such as virtual – online equivalents. Countries that have imposed the travel restrictions have also raised concerns on the effectiveness of this strategy in containing the virus.
In this article, we are going to discuss most of the international travel restrictions that were imposed from 2020 when the virus struck.
With much said, let's dive in!
Overview
Do you know that the European Union rejected the idea of suspending the Schengen free travel zone and also the introduction of the border controls with Italy?
This is a decision that has received so many criticisms from some of the European politicians. In addition, just after some of the EU member states decided to announce full closure of their borders to foreign nationals, the European Commission President Ursula von der Leven said that some of the controls could be verified but general travel bans are not seen to be the most effective way by the World Health Organization.
This only lasted for a short time until the EU decided to close all its external borders.
This was after a study in Science revealed that the travel restrictions had only modest effects such as delaying the initial spread of the virus and only works when merged with infection prevention and also control measures put in place to help reduce the spread.
Researchers went further by explaining that the travel restrictions are only most useful during the early phases and also during the late phases of every epidemic and only that the travel from Wuhan came too late for this effect to be noticed.
Countries and even territories that are implementing global travel ban
Africa
Do you know some of the countries in Africa that imposed a worldwide global travel ban? If not, they are not limited to:
- Algeria: All the international flights to Algeria were suspended. Also, all the Sea travel with Europe was also suspended.
- The Gambia: Gambia chose to close its land border with Senegal and also closed its airspace for most of the flights.
- Madagascar: Except for the medical evacuations, cargo shipments and lastly repatriations outside of the country, Madagascar suspended all flights.
- Mali: As was witnessed on 18 of March 2020, President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita decided to suspend all the flights from affected countries and also closed schools and also prohibited large public gatherings.
- Sudan: As was seen on 17 March 2020, Sudan declared a state of emergency and decided to close all its airports and even land borders.
- Morocco: On the other hand, Morocco only decided to suspend all the passenger flights to and from the country.
- Mauritius: Here, passengers were not permitted to transit or even enter Mauritius.
Americas
What about the Americas? Which countries decided to impose travel bans? Let’s find out!
- Canada: Canada decided to close all its borders for all the travellers that are not citizens, permanent residents or even US citizens.
- Montserrat: Here, no passenger was allowed to enter Montserrat. International borders were also closed.
- Suriname: On the 14th of March 2020, Suriname decided to close all its borders for everyone and even flights.
- Venezuela: On the 10th of April 2020, all the borders were closed for all those that are non-residents. The only exceptions were for the humanitarian, medevac and also repatriation flights.
- Uruguay: On the 1st of April 2020, all the borders were shut for the non-residents. And it was also hinted that this would remain closed for international tourism for the better part of 2021.
Asia
Many countries in Asia decided to impose international travel bans. Some of them include:
- Iran: Iran decided to close all borders for non-residents and also the Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs ceased all permits to all Tourist, Business and even Medical Visas.
- India: Being one of the most hit countries, India decided to suspend all flights on 22 March 2020 until further notice. However, this didn’t include cargo flights and also their crew members, helpers and also cleaners.
- Bhutan: On 24 March, all foreigners were not permitted to enter Bhutan on all its border checkpoints.
- Cambodia: Foreign nationals were also not allowed to enter Cambodia in whichever way.
- Brunei: All the foreign nationals were banned to enter Brunei on 24 March 2020 including even those on transit.
- Georgia: Georgian government decided to impose travel restrictions to all non-local citizens entering the country on whichever way. All air travels were also stopped on 20 March 2020.
- Indonesia: On 1 April 2020, all foreigners with exceptions from residents, family connection, medical personnel and also those responsible for transporting goods were banned from entering Indonesia.
Europe
Some of the countries in Europe that shut their borders are:
- Hungary: On 1 September, Hungary closed all its borders for all foreigners with exceptions of Hungarian citizens and also permanent residents from the EEA that were allowed to enter.
- Isle of Man: On the 25 of March 2020, the Isle of Man borders were closed for all the impending transport. Again, in October 2020, all the borders were shut for all foreigners.
- Czech Republic: On 30 January 2021, Czech decided to close all its borders for foreigners, non-essential travel into the country though its borders remained open.
Capping it off
You should consider checking the updated reports on the international travel ban of a country that you plan to visit prior to making preparations since COVID-19 is still spreading with near variants of the disease also emerging from different countries. Best of luck!