Covid travel restrictions are easy to impose – but what we really need right now is clarity

Once again the government faces the charge that it has acted too late in introducing restrictions to try to curb the spread of Covid-19, in this case in response to the spread of the omicron variant. The stable door, it is alleged, is being shut after the horse has bolted. No 10 has also been attacked for overreacting to the new variant, predictably by the travel industry, but less predictably by the World Health Organisation. The WHO made the general point that blanket bans would not prevent the spread of omicron, saying they were an attack on global solidarity.

Global solidarity may sound like a vague concept, but it certainly matters. For understandable reasons, western governments have sought to protect their own citizens first. That is their immediate responsibility. But for the world to curb this scourge, there has to be a global response. No one is safe until everyone is safe. Meanwhile, it seems unfair that countries that are adept at identifying new strains – in the case of omicron, South Africa – should be punished for their technical competence and the openness of their response.

As far as the UK is concerned, the government has defended its new travel restrictions as proportionate. From Tuesday, anyone arriving in the UK will have to take a Covid test before their departure and another within two days of landing, whether they have been fully vaccinated or not. In addition, Nigeria has been added to the red list of countries, from which people arriving in the UK are required to spend 10 days in hotel quarantine at their own expense.

Travel restrictions are easy to impose, whatever view one takes of their effectiveness – easier than the range of restrictions that have been imposed during previous waves of the virus on the daily lives of people already in the country. As far as these domestic restrictions are concerned, the recent messaging from the government has been at best mixed and at worst confusing.

On the one hand, people have been urged by Boris Johnson to go ahead with Christmas parties. On the other hand, Dr Jenny Harries, chief executive of the UK’s Health Security Agency, has advised people to limit their socialising over the winter months. Some confusion is inevitable, but it is hard to feel comfortable with a government that permits different messages on how people should behave.

Looking ahead, there are two broad themes emerging. One is for tighter controls to spread across continental Europe. Greece and Austria have made vaccinations mandatory. Germany has announced plans for doing so from next February. It is quite possible that this will become standard EU policy. If it does, that will put huge pressure on the UK to follow the more stringent European practice rather than the more libertarian US approach.

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The other theme is the possibility, even the hope, that the new variant will help the world forge a way of living with Covid without serious disruption to daily life. The evidence from South Africa is as yet unclear. But it seems possible that omicron, while being more easily transmitted than other variants of the virus and possibly resistant to vaccines, produces a much milder illness, more akin to flu. The WHO has urged people not to panic. There have so far been no deaths from the variant reported to it from anywhere in the world.

The only rational response to these confusing stories is caution. People will inevitably travel less and socialise less over the holiday period than they would normally, or indeed had planned to do even a few days ago. As the evidence becomes clearer, it is vital that the government should be open about the changing balance of risks, and frame its own policies accordingly.

The government has urged people to show common sense. That is admirable, but the mixed messages it has given with its own guidance show not only a lack of clarity but a dearth of that very quality it urges on others. When it can be reasonably sure just how dangerous the new variant is, it must communicate that information in a frank and open manner. There is enough confusion already without the government adding to the pot.