Why travel bans are usually the wrong way to curb Omicron

ON DECEMBER 31ST 2019 the World Health Organisation was told about a cluster of what appeared to be pneumonia cases in a Chinese city called Wuhan. Over the next few weeks and months first cities, then countries and finally the entire planet shut down. Humanity has learned a lot about the coronavirus in the past two years. Masks, social distancing and, most of all, vaccines have proved effective in curbing its spread. Yet one lesson has not sunk in: long-lasting travel restrictions are mostly futile.

In November, when South Africa announced the discovery of a fast-spreading new variant, Omicron, many countries’ first response was to slap entry bans or onerous hotel-quarantine requirements on travellers from southern Africa. Some, such as Japan and Israel, closed their borders to all foreigners. Others that were in the process of reopening, such as Singapore, South Korea and Thailand, quickly changed their minds. Obstacles to travel were re-erected even within Europe’s supposedly borderless Schengen area.