COVID-19

 COVID-19

Despite the ambitious containment measures against highly infectious diseases, the world has been brought to its knees by COVID-19, which has not discriminated between the rich and the poor. Coronavirus (COVID-19) is an infectious disease caused by a newly discovered virus, one of the families of viruses known to cause mild to severe infections to people (CDC 1). With the virus being highly contagious and no treatment available, Coronavirus has changed how people work, socialize, play, and learn. The origin of the current outbreak of Coronavirus can be traced to a small part of China called Wuhan, a major international and domestic transit hub. The infections have since spread in all the continents in the world. Whereas travel bans have been cited as the most effective method of containing the spread of the virus, however, history shows that such restrictions to include infectious diseases such as influenza have failed.

First, without a well-structured and coordinated response strategy to reduce rates of transmission, stringent travel restrictions alone may prove futile. Countries such as Italy and Iran have restricted travel, yet their fatality cases continue to rise. Could the state of their healthcare systems be the cause of higher rates of transmission and mortality? The most affected part of the population is the older people with a multiplicity of underlying medical conditions. In other countries such as Singapore, South Korea, and Saudi Arabia, transmission rates have been relatively slow. The low transmission rates are attributed to the efforts to educate the public, identify infected people, and isolating them. China adopted the most stringent measures to restrict travel but could not avert the coronavirus pandemic. In the US, it is not the lack of travel bans that exacerbated the epidemic but delayed preparedness and complacency in managing the catastrophe (NCSL 1). Travel restrictions will help in temporarily slowing the spread of the virus as governments prepare to identify and isolate those infected.

Besides, whereas all methods of travel and transportation provide closed environments where the virus thrives, insufficient testing would lead to more contact from asymptomatic people. The origin of the coronavirus outbreak is Wuhan, China’s key transport hub for local and international transit. The lockdown of domestic transportation and international restrictions only served to delay the spread of respiratory infection. The policy could not contain the spread of the virus entirely. This is because there were many sick people using trains, buses, planes, and ships who went undetected hence dispersing all over the world. Those people who were asymptomatic were challenging to identify and consequently could not be prevented from traveling (WHO 1-2).

Moreover, Italy is in total lockdown, and therefore it is clear travel restrictions have had minimal impact on reducing transmission cases. Italy was the first country to ban international flights from China, yet it is suffering from the coronavirus epidemic. The response to Coronavirus in Italy has been slow and uncoordinated. The initial slow response and downplaying of Coronavirus created room for the virus to spread undetected. In China, cover-ups or downplaying of the situation made the pandemic to get out of hand. In the US, blocking foreigners visiting from China was effective in delaying the spread of the virus for a few days. There were also travel bans to travelers from Europe. However, new infections were generated from within than from outside borders (Bloomberg 2).

Political correctness impaired judgment and slowed the initiation of rapid responses to reduce interstate transmission. The government responded late by investing in the manufacture of testing kits to enhance testing and identification of areas, which are hotspots for the virus such as New York. With travel restrictions still ongoing in significant parts of the world, the risk of people contracting the disease remains high. The investing in testing kits to diagnose infection cases is the best way of ensuring priority allocation of resources towards reducing pressure health care systems.

Further, minimizing non-essential travel is an excellent form of social distancing to enable people to avoid crowded places such as airports and bus transit depots. Would this form of social distancing impact on the outbreak trajectory? Travel bans alone may not be adequate to limit opportunities for transmission. Adoption of travel bans together with other social distancing measures such as banning social gatherings and large crowds is the antidote to slow the pandemic. These social distancing efforts will reduce the pressure in hospitals and health care systems. Closing of schools, canceling public events, and washing hands have proved to flatten the curve of the epidemic disease (NCSL 1).

Rapid response action in China through the closing of schools, banning public gatherings, and quarantining of infected people point to a robust health care system. How would banning travel help reduce the spread of Coronavirus in a country where a systematic rot characterizes the healthcare system? Coronavirus has exposed America’s lack of preparedness in its universal health systems. The systemic decay of the healthcare system is evident, as citizens pay mandatory healthcare insurance monthly, but face a lack of resources and eventually die due to patient overload. Many reported cases of insufficient hospital beds, social support, and inadequate protection to medical staff have contributed to the rising mortality. The same situation is being replicated in Europe where protective medical supplies have hit record high medical staff are always in contact with patients (Bloomberg 1-2). In most health care facilities, healthcare staff works triple shifts, with doctors coming out of retirement and healthcare professionals flying from one part of the world to the other like an aid. There are insufficient human resources to aid hundreds of thousands of sick patients. Therefore the impact of stringent travel restrictions is negligible compared to measures social distancing.

However, there is no consensus on the assertion that travel bans are not the most effective method of containing the spread of a respiratory viral infection. For instance, the largest outbreak in mainland China started from a shipping vessel, the Diamond Princess (CDC 1-2). Travel bans on these cruise ships could have lowered the spread of the virus. The closed environments provided by these ships enhance contact among travelers who help in transmitting the disease among many people. The crew members and passengers facilitated the transmission of the virus from one vessel to the next. So far, there are more than ten cases of deaths emanating from cruise ships as a result (CDC 1).

Lack of strict travel restrictions is to blame for the increasing transmission and mortality rates experienced in many countries. However, the curve for coronavirus infection is flattening in significant hotspots such as China and Italy as a result of a lockdown (Lai 1-2). In Italy, strict lockdown efforts are bearing fruit in leveling off the cases despite the increase in the death toll. In China, new cases and deaths reduced due to their strict travel ban rules. The infection is, however, resurfacing in other countries without proper travel bans. Countries such as Taiwan and Singapore managed to control the pandemic, but lack of sustained travel ban efforts costs them as new reported cases spike.

Further, an upsurge in new cases in the US point towards the resistance of some states to the announced stringent travel measures by the federal government. Governors in states such as Rhode Island, Louisiana, and Hawaii have placed strict guidelines on Americans traveling from other countries. Those people who do not adhere to the measures are forced to quarantine. States that have resented the lockdown measures to contain Coronavirus have reported higher transmission and mortality cases. These states include New York, Alabama, Texas, Connecticut, and New Jersey, among others (Lai 2).

Travel restrictions require that governors close borders. The question, however, remains on how mobilization and coordination of the public health resources such as ventilators, test kits, hospital beds, and other healthcare facilities. Whereas banning travel through closed borders works to contain the pandemic, it may be challenging to mitigate the effects if one area lacks essential health care services. If travel restriction is a bulletproof solution to stop the spread of Coronavirus, why does the WHO recommend against such measures? More travel bans may encourage travelers to establish ways of avoiding scrutiny and discourage revealing of information regarding their travel history (theguardian.com 1).

Conclusion

Covid-19 has spread so fast in mainland China and other more than 30 countries, including the United States, whereas travel bans have been cited as the most effective method of containing the spread of the virus. However, previous travel restrictions have proved futile in reducing the spread of the virus in the long-run. Banning travelers sounds an excellent measure to avert the pandemic; however, if not combined with other containment measures, it will only help temporarily. Other measures include social distancing, proper hygiene, and a revamped healthcare system. Stringent standards should be directed towards minimizing non-essential travel, revamping the healthcare system, and practical coordination efforts towards flattening the infection rate curves.