Are Travel bans effective in controlling Coronavirus? Ground realities speak something else?

No one wants the local transmission to go beyond control when an outbreak happens. And this is precisely what has occurred with the current epidemic of Coronavirus. The first course of action that almost every country took when the spread of the disease increased was to ban travels.
But, are travel bans been really effective in containing Coronavirus? We thought of unearthing a few facts.

The spread of the virus has only been moderately delayed because of travel bans.

Are Travel Bans really effective?

Well, the ground facts speak a lot differently when it comes to the spread of the destructive virus. A recent study has indicated that the travel bans have only moderately spread the spread of the disease.

This was actually proved by Italy. In fact, the country became the leader when it comes to the rise of the disease. A huge number of infections came from the sectors that nothing related to China, the origin of the disease. It clearly indicates that Coronavirus has been spreading as a result of the local transmission than being a result of travel-related ones.

In fact, it does not happen only in the case of Italy. There have been around 13 countries where Coronavirus has been observed to be spreading though local transmission alone. The situation in Iran and Korea have really been extremely precarious. The infection has killed 2600 and infected over 80000 so far.

Thirty-eight countries across the world have clearly mentioned it to the WHO that they have undertaken the options to install travel restrictions. Most of these countries have institutionalized trave bans for travelers from China and any country that have a high number of reported COVID 19 transmission.

There have been several travel restrictions imposed that include quarantining the foreign nationals, self-isolation of its own citizens who have returned recently from the infected countries, and visa restrictions. There are No trade restrictions imposed on any of the affected countries.

How to find the right travel bans?

Analysis of the data has clearly shown that the travel bans and other restrictions have considerably delayed the import of the new cases. But, it has NOT prevented the import. As per the statement from WHO, these measures can, in fact, “may have a significant economic and social impact.”

Implementations of travel bans actually need a thorough study. You need to understand the actual origin of the virus. This has been an area that has been quite ambiguous. If you are looking for the actual examples, a few new cases in the countries such as Algeria, Brazil, and a few European countries originated from the ravelers to Italy. In contrast, the very first case in New Zealand came from a traveler from Iran.

So, which country will you ban? That is precisely what you cannot make a decision on. The need of the hour is to focus on the exact travel bans and their proper execution. In fact, these travel restrictions can incidentally prevent the affected countries from reporting the cases that happen in their region.

Who suggests opting for the right amount of screening and quarantining at the airports. It would also be a practical solution to improving the diagnostic capability, enough isolation options, creating infection prevention capacities, and of course, practical teaching and communication. Your resources would be better utilized than the ones opted for travel bans altogether.