• J Travel Med · May 2022

    Navigating travel in Europe during the pandemic: from mobile apps, certificates and quarantine to traffic light system.

    • Justine I Blanford, Nienke Beerlage-de Jong, Stephanie E Schouten, Alex W Friedrich, and Vera Araújo-Soares.
    • Faculty of Geoinformation Science and Earth Observation, University of Twente, Enschede, the Netherlands.
    • J Travel Med. 2022 May 31; 29 (3).

    BackgroundEver since 2020, travelling has become complex, and increasingly so as the COVID-19 pandemic continues. To reopen Europe safely, a consensus of travel measures has been agreed between countries to enable movement between countries with as few restrictions as possible. However, communication of these travel measures and requirements for entry are not always clear and easily available. The aim of this study was to assess the availability, accessibility and harmonization of current travel information available in Europe.MethodsWe performed a systematic documental analysis of online publicly available information and synthesized travel entry requirements for all countries in the European Union and Schengen Area (N = 31). For each country we assessed entry requirements, actions after entry, how risk was assessed, and how accessible the information was.ResultsWe found varying measures implemented across Europe for entry and a range of exemptions and restrictions, some of which were consistent between countries. Information was not always easy to find taking on average 10 clicks to locate. Twenty-one countries required pre-travel forms to be completed. Forty apps were in use, 11 serving as digital certification checkers. All countries required some form of COVID-19 certification for entry with some exemptions (e.g. children). Nineteen percent (n = 6) of countries used the ECDC risk assessment system; 80% (n = 25) defined their own. Forty-eight percent (n = 15) of countries used a traffic-light system with 2-5 risk classifications.ConclusionA comprehensive set of measures has been developed to enable continued safe travel in Europe. However further refinements and coordination is needed to align travel measures throughout the EU to minimize confusion and maximize adherence to requested measures. We recommend that, along with developing travel measures based on a common set of rules, a standard approach is taken to communicate what these measures are.© International Society of Travel Medicine 2022. Published by Oxford University Press.

      Pubmed     Full text   Copy Citation     Plaintext  

      Add institutional full text...

    Notes

     
    Knowledge, pearl, summary or comment to share?
    300 characters remaining
    help        
    You can also include formatting, links, images and footnotes in your notes
    • Simple formatting can be added to notes, such as *italics*, _underline_ or **bold**.
    • Superscript can be denoted by <sup>text</sup> and subscript <sub>text</sub>.
    • Numbered or bulleted lists can be created using either numbered lines 1. 2. 3., hyphens - or asterisks *.
    • Links can be included with: [my link to pubmed](http://pubmed.com)
    • Images can be included with: ![alt text](https://bestmedicaljournal.com/study_graph.jpg "Image Title Text")
    • For footnotes use [^1](This is a footnote.) inline.
    • Or use an inline reference [^1] to refer to a longer footnote elseweher in the document [^1]: This is a long footnote..

    hide…