The International Air Transport Association (IATA) is pressing countries to revoke travel bans that were intended to fight the spread of the omicron variant of COVID-19.
IATA said in a statement in early December that governments should comply with the advice of the World Health Organization (WHO), which argues that travel bans will not prevent the spread of the disease.
“Blanket travel bans … place a heavy burden on lives and livelihoods,” WHO says. “In addition, they can adversely impact global health efforts during a pandemic by disincentivizing countries to report and share epidemiological and sequencing data.”
WHO guidance recommended that governments regularly review and update their policies when new evidence is available about the characteristics of omicron and other COVID-19 variants.
IATA Director General Willie Walsh said governments should comply with WHO advice, with the goal of moving “away from the uncoordinated, evidence-ab…
