As we enter the third year of the novel coronavirus pandemic, and with no clear sign of when it will end, it ought to be obvious now that nations and individuals should expend as much energy on retrofitting the world to exist with the virus as we have on trying to defeat it.

Almost a year ago, the Jamaica Observer took the unprecedented step of formally endorsing the COVID-19 vaccine, saying that it was the only solution on the immediate horizon to end the pandemic and return life to normal. That, we still think, was the responsible thing to do.

Since then, the global community, at a heavy cost, has entered into lockdowns and other extreme means of restricting movement of people within and between countries, to stop the spread of the virus and its variants. The new thinking is about how to end such restrictions safely.

This is why we support the call by the 17,000-member American Society of Travel Advisors (ASTA) on the White House to request modifications to the current order requiring proof of a negative coronavirus test or documentation of having recovered from COVID-19 for all air passengers arriving from a foreign country.

ASTA argued that that order (the January 2021 inbound testing order) remained “the single biggest barrier to the full recovery of the international travel system on which so many of our members, and their clients, rely for their livelihoods”. It went on to urge the Joseph Biden Administration to request that fully vaccinated US citizens be exempted from the order.

Practical challenges posed by the order, ASTA said, ranged from uncertainty as to the availability of timely testing in-destination to avoid disruption to travellers’ return trip, to the financial and psychological burdens associated with being prevented from returning home due to a positive (or false positive) test result.

These have generally had a chilling effect on international travel bookings, exacerbated by the recent shortening of the testing window from 72 to 24 hours. Those who offer paid testing facilities seem to be the only ones benefiting from this.

The travel advisors recognised the efficacy of vaccination against the virus, but suggested that “exempting the more than 200 million Americans who are fully vaccinated from the order would reflect the scientific consensus that widespread vaccinations are the single most important element of the fight against COVID-19 while allowing the travel industry’s recovery to begin in earnest”.

It is to be noted that more and more countries — including the United Kingdom, Ireland, Sweden among others — are opting for the removal of the pre-departure test requirement for the fully vaccinated. The European Union now recommends its member states not to require vaccinated residents to undergo pre-departure tests.

We hope that the decision by the Jamaican Government to allow up to 10,000 vaccinated fans to attend the upcoming Gibson/McCook Relays is the beginning of a determination to bring the country in line with the global thinking on learning to exist with the virus.