Evidence of quarantine’s effectiveness low: WHO
The announcement by the WHO would be a relief to the global travel and tourism industry that has been battered by the pandemic and requirement of mandatory quarantine of travellers enforced by most nations
NEW DELHI : Quarantining travellers has “low to very low" efficacy in arresting the spread of the coronavirus infection, said the World Health Organization.
The announcement by the global health agency would be a relief to the global travel and tourism industry that has been battered by the pandemic and requirement of mandatory quarantine of travellers enforced by most nations.
“The evidence for the usefulness of quarantine to prevent transmission of SARS-CoV-2 is of low to very low certainty at best and based on a limited number of modelling studies and a few observational series available at the time of closure of the literature search on 13 November 2020," said the WHO’s Guideline Development Group (GDG) for International Travel and Health (ITH).
It said, however, that isolation of “symptomatic and/or SARS-CoV-2 test-positive travellers" remains an integral WHO-endorsed strategy to tackle covid-19. The pandemic has had a devastating impact on international travel, particularly in the civil aviation sector. Many countries, including India, have enforced quarantine measures for travellers.
The WHO came up with the evidence after member states, air transport stakeholders and the public asked the health agency for a critical review of the evidence for suitable risk-based public health measures to mitigate the transmission of covid-19 to restore air travel and help restart the aviation industry as a whole.
While India’s health ministry has a mandatory provision of 7 to 14 days of quarantine for travellers coming from other countries, several states within India have different quarantine requirements in place. Earlier in May, the Delhi government mandated those coming to the national capital from Andhra Pradesh or Telangana by bus, train, flight, car, truck or any mode of transportation to mandatorily undergo 14 days of quarantine at an institutional or paid facility as a precaution against a new virulent strain of covid-19 that has reportedly been found in these states.
During its evidence review titled—Public Health Measures in the Aviation Sector in the Context of Covid-19: Quarantine and Isolation—the ITH GDG evaluated evidence on the effectiveness of quarantine and/or isolation of arriving air travellers in preventing the importation and onward transmission of SARS-CoV-2 in the destination country and rate it using the grading method.
The ITH GDG also reviewed the evidence on the effectiveness of quarantining air travellers and balanced it against potentially harmful effects such as infringement of human rights, stigmatization and financial and economic constraints that also come into play while curbing the movement of travellers.
“Traveller quarantine, however, may be disproportionately harmful to some people, including individuals or groups who have limited social and/or economic capital, children, racial and ethnic minorities, people with disabilities and people with underlying medical conditions, including mental health issues," the WHO said.
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