Can I Travel Once I’m Vaccinated?
The World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC) recently warned, however, that relying on the vaccinations as a passport to entry for travel simply excludes too many travelers. The organization is instead pushing for more and better testing protocols.
“The common sense approach is to allow the free movement of people who can prove a negative [COVID-19] test result, rather than reserve traveling for a small minority who have been vaccinated,” Gloria Guevara, president and CEO of the WTTC, said in a statement.
Guevara’s concern is that if countries or travel companies require vaccinations from travelers, those further down the list, such as younger travelers or those in countries where the vaccines aren’t being made available as quickly, will be at a disadvantage.
“We should not discriminate against those who wish to travel but have not been vaccinated,” Guevara added.
Whether it’s discriminatory or not, some cruise lines have already decided to make vaccination a requirement for passengers to board, including luxury line Crystal Cruises, U.S. riverboat operator American Queen Steamboat Company, and its sister line Victory Cruise Lines, which sails the Great Lakes and in Alaska and Mexico. Cruising has been largely on hold since last March when several major coronavirus outbreaks on cruise ships defined the dramatic beginnings of this global pandemic. Given the challenges cruise lines have faced, perhaps it’s no surprise that some are playing it extremely cautiously, requiring vaccinations from guests and crew.
What the coming weeks and months will reveal is how many additional travel companies and governments will begin developing vaccine policies for travelers and what those policies will look like.
If I’m vaccinated will I still need to get tested for COVID when I travel?
For the time being, the vast majority of destinations that have COVID-19 testing requirements in place for travelers have not yet developed bypass options for vaccinated travelers. Any vaccinated travelers who travel in the near future should expect to have to follow the same rules as unvaccinated travelers regarding COVID-19 testing requirements.
This could of course change if and when governments begin to adjust entry requirements for vaccinated travelers. But as mentioned above, with the exception of a handful of countries, such as Iceland, we have yet to see these kinds of adjustments made on any larger scale yet.
Will vaccinated travelers need to quarantine after traveling?
Similar to the above, we have yet to see quarantine requirements be adjusted by more than a few countries for vaccinated travelers. For now, vaccinated travelers should expect that they will be required to adhere to the quarantine requirements set forth by the destinations they are traveling to.
That being said, among the requirements being waived for vaccinated travelers by the few countries, such as Poland and Seychelles, that have already laid out their rules for vaccinated travelers is the need to quarantine. So, it’s certainly a possibility in the future. We’re just not there yet.
How could international travel with kids work?
Because we have yet to see large-scale policy adjustments for vaccinated travelers of any kind, it is far too soon to know what kinds of exceptions, if any, will be made for children. If COVID testing requirements are any indication, many destinations typically do have an exception for kids—but the age limits on these exceptions vary widely. The U.S. requires negative COVID tests from kids entering the United States who are age two and older and Canada requires it for kids age five and older, as two examples.
George Mason University’s Roess notes that clinical trials that will assess the safety and efficacy of COVID-19 vaccines in children are just beginning. “The hope is that enough data will be available by the middle of the summer that vaccination may begin towards the end of this year in older pediatric populations but more likely vaccination in the majority of pediatric populations will not begin until 2022,” says Roess.
Dr. Juthani of Yale says that we can expect to start to see some data about children and COVID vaccines by the fall. She notes that young children are less likely to get the virus and are less likely to be hospitalized from it. “So, if parents and grandparents can get vaccinated, families can assess their own risk tolerance and consider travel even if their children are not vaccinated,” advises Dr. Juthani.
How might the newer coronavirus variants impact travel?
With regards to the newer variants of coronavirus that have emerged more recently, including those that have been identified in the United Kingdom, South Africa, and Brazil, the concern there is that some have been found to be more transmissible, explains Emory University’s Nelson. They are “more likely to spread than some of the strains that we’ve been dealing with for the past year,” she says.
As governments keep a watchful eye and attempt to keep particularly concerning variants at bay, they could impact how and when governments relax travel restrictions—we’ve already seen some restrictions tighten in direct response to the variants, such as the United States expanding its COVID-19 travel ban to include travel from South Africa, due to the variant circulating there.
New variants mean that travelers should also be more vigilant.
“If I were to travel on an airplane right now, I would be more comfortable with a KN95 mask because we don’t know as much about how easy [these new variants] spread. What we do know is that they’re a little bit more dangerous,” says Nelson.
Nelson notes that while the current vaccines were tested against the variants that were circulating last year and might be a little less effective against newer variants, “The vaccines are extraordinarily effective against the variants that we saw circulating last year. So, if they are a little less effective against the variants, yes, that is concerning but you are still more protected than you would be if you were not vaccinated.”
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