The global pandemic has drastically and
dramatically changed the way we see the world. Along with increased health
awareness among people, new standards of living and traveling or the ‘new
normal’ has been established.
Subsequently, social distancing, quarantine,
and isolation have become a part of regular human life.
Travel and tourism has been
one of most badly hit sectors due to the coronavirus pandemic. Among the many
things that have been impacted is the way we travel. And more importantly, why
we travel.
The idea of taking exotic
summer vacations has taken a backseat ever since a series of lockdowns were
imposed across the world to prevent the spread of the virus. Industry experts
opine that while domestic travel will eventually pick up pace in a few months,
international travel still looks like a far-off dream.
Quarantine
Days after Travelling abroad:
Quarantine is used to keep someone who might have been exposed to Covid-19 away from others. Quarantine helps prevent spread of
disease that can occur before a person knows they are sick or if they are
infected with the virus without feeling symptoms.
People in quarantine should
stay home, separate themselves from others, monitor their health, and follow
directions from their state or local health department.
India is one of the worst-hit countries in
the world in the wake of the novel coronavirus. As of January 4, with a
whopping number of over 1 crore cases (1 CRORE = 10,000,000) and 145k deaths,
the country is teetering on the edge of an uncontrolled outbreak in its tussle
with the deadly disease.
Given the challenging times, the country and
its ministry are looking to facilitate travel for eligible passengers within
and across its borders, introducing travel bubbles with several countries and
operating repatriation flights.
If you are a foreigner or an Indian stuck
overseas and would like to fly back to India, there are specific quarantine
guidelines you’d need to follow. The recommended duration of quarantine is up
to 14 days from the time of possible exposure to the SARS-CoV-2.
In keeping with this standard guideline, the
Ministry of Home Affairs in India has mandated all passengers arriving in the country
by international flights to undergo a week-long institutional quarantine. This
is to be followed by seven days of home quarantine, where you’d need to closely
monitor your health.
The cost of the institutional quarantine has
to be borne by the passengers. Acceptance of this obligation needs to be signed
and submitted at the overseas embassy before the confirmation of their booking.
However, in a modification of the guidelines released on August 2, the Indian
government has been letting off eligible passengers without the compulsory
institutional quarantine.
Passengers arriving from UK, European and
Middle East Countries will have to undergo at least 7 days of institutional
quarantine, after which they may take the COVID-19 RT-PCR test. Only if they
test negative, will they be allowed to spend the remaining seven days in home
quarantine.
Effectiveness of
Travel Restrictions:
What is known is that by
restricting the immigration of people who have been exposed or could have been
exposed is curtailing the spread of the disease.
Finding effective ways to
continue doing that is going to be critical, if we are going to avoid the kind
of worldwide pandemic the World Health Organization is concerned about.
A preliminary analysis of
travel restrictions suggested the measures may have delayed the importation of
new cases, but did not prevent the importation of the disease.
The containment strategies
have certainly had an impact, but whether they're going to be able to contain
the virus over a longer period of time? We're dealing with a lot of unknowns.
When we limit travel from an
area, and then in a few weeks we see cases, it suggests that we didn't have the
right information of where we were supposed to limit it or that the targeted
measure didn't work. There's always going to be a bit of a lag in our
understanding of where the virus is.
The travel controls are
effective if we know how to screen for the virus. The virus is very hard to
detect if people are asymptomatic but also infectious. There should be an
expansion of surveillance of the virus, experts say. This could include
sampling portions of the population.
With these surveillance mechanisms, it is
possible that the first cases a country will notice are the severe ones,
because they will be easier to identify.
Sample testing can help us understand if the
virus is here, if it is circulating, and to keep tabs on it so that we're not
caught off guard when suddenly there are a bunch of deaths.
Some Latest Guidelines
after an International Travel:
1. India, UK were to resume
weekly flights from January 8, 2021. The flights were suspended from December
23, 2020 due to fears over the UK’s new strain of coronavirus that is highly
transmissible.
2. India will suspend
international flights till January 31, 2021 but cargo operations are exempted.
Air India has announced it is starting new services to the US from January in
2021.
3. India’s civil
aviation officials are discussing the resumption of international flights in
the new year after vaccination programs begin. India to allow international
flyers to take connecting flights to some countries under air bubble routes.
4. India and Nepal
sign air bubble agreement on December 10, 2020. Daily flights will be scheduled
between the two countries. India reaches air bubble arrangement with Ethiopia
for international travel.
5. China has
suspended the entry of non-Chinese travellers from India with valid visas or
resident permits citing coronavirus concerns. Tanzania, Netherlands, and Rwanda
have agreed to air bubble arrangements with India under the Vande Bharat
Mission Phase 7.
6. Media is reporting
on air bubble flights between India, Japan. The Indian embassy in Japan has
released standard operating procedures for India-bound passengers.
7. Foreign nationals
who wish to travel to India for medical treatment can apply for a fresh visa
under this category and choose one attendant to accompany them as per the visa
category provisions (that is, if the original applicant has their medical visa
approved).
8. As of October 22,
2020, India is allowing all foreign and Indian nationals (including OCI and PIO
card holders) to travel to India (except for tourists) and all existing visas
(except for tourist and electronic visas) are restored.
9. As of October 21, India has travel bubble arrangements with the US, the UK, Germany, France, the UAE, Maldives, Canada, Japan, Bahrain, Afghanistan, Nigeria, Qatar, Iraq, Oman, Bhutan, Kenya, Bangladesh, and Ukraine.
10. India is in talks with Italy, Kazakhstan, and others for similar transport air bubble arrangements, as per civil aviation authorities. India has air bubble agreements with 18 countries, including now Bangladesh and Ukraine. Flights between Bangladesh and India have resumed on October 28.
11. Air India announced it will operate
additional flights between India and Canada from October 25 to March 27, 2021
and bookings for the flights have started. India has an air bubble with Canada.
12.On October 8, 2020, India’s civil aviation
authority said the future of international flights will depend on the
availability of a vaccine, hinting at the extension of air travel bubble arrangements
into March-April this year.
Academic Preparations for the Post-Pandemic World:
At some point, monies will be committed
irretrievably if the most optimistic hopes are not realized, potentially
compounding the financial burden of the lost spring and summer 2020 semesters.
Preparing for post-pandemic study abroad will
challenge each institution’s risk tolerance until the future is known with
greater clarity. Some common study abroad environments may no longer be viable
locations for responsible programming.
In other locations, previous hosts and
partners may lack the same vibrant academic curriculum if they re-emerge at
all, making it necessary to reassess programs completely with a deliberate
vetting process.
An institution may have to return to
programming with a rebalanced portfolio for some time, allowing the field to
recover and indicate its own health. In the near term, programs should be
reconstituted only in locations where necessary conditions truly are restored.
Returning to the international domain with a
phased strategy may allow universities to do so with more focused oversight,
especially if faced with unwelcome surprises that unravel pivotal risk
assumptions.
Ultimately, international educators must
recognize that the study abroad environment has been recast in complex ways
that will take time to understand and address with necessary confidence.
Peer institutions with similar international
profiles abroad can provide a shared baseline to help inform strategies, but
each college or university will have to reach its own decisions within a
deliberate process.
The immense opportunities of education abroad
remain, but the world in which we seek those opportunities has changed.
Written by – Sakshi Chauhan
Social