Health experts offer strategies on covid travel precautions to keep – The Peninsula Qatar

Health experts offer strategies on covid travel precautions to keep – The Peninsula Qatar

As the crushing omicron wave subsides, even the strictest states are dropping mask requirements.

Countries around the world are getting rid of testing requirements for vaccinated visitors. And the travel industry is pushing for the United States to jettison its testing rules to fly into the country.

So should we prepare to travel like it's 2019 again?

Not quite - and possibly not ever, said health experts interviewed by The Washington Post.

"The pandemic, whether we want to believe it or not, is still happening," said Michael Mina, an epidemiologist and chief science officer at eMed, which offers proctored rapid tests for home use.

In the United States, the seven-day average of new coronavirus cases has dropped significantly from the omicron peak and well below the numbers seen during the delta surge. But new infections are higher than they were during much of 2020 and 2021. While hospitalizations and deaths are dropping, Washington Post data show that the average number of daily new deaths in the country is nearly 2,300, and almost 69,000 are hospitalized with Covid-19.

Doctors say travelers need to determine the level of risk they are comfortable taking based on their own health status, especially as some rules fall away.

But as the surge