Editorial: Is it time to drop our pre-departure Covid test?

Passengers get a Covid-19 test at Heathrow in London, last November. The US is lifting its requirement that international air travellers to the US take a Covid pre-departure test. Photo / AP

EDITORIAL

America's decision to remove its negative test requirement for international air travellers throws the spotlight here on our own arrival rules.

The United States, in the middle of its summer holiday season, still requires most incoming non-citizens to be vaccinated against Covid-19. The Centres for Disease Control and Prevention still advises travellers to wear masks and take tests before and after flying.

But dropping the need to prove negative status would smooth travel in line with other countries.

Airlines have been lobbying the US Government to get rid of the rule, saying that many Americans worried they might test positive while abroad - with the extra time, cost and stress that would involve - have been opting to stay at home.

New Zealand's pre-departure test requirement for arrivals is expected to expire on July 31, but that's a long way off for Kiwis currently taking advantage of the Northern Hemisphere summer, and a fairly stable Covid situation in various major tourist markets.

Some New Zealanders have opted to pass up on trips abroad this year in the hope that travel will be easier in 2023. They have a point: Travellers at US and European airports have struck long queues, delays and cancellations because of staff shortages and supply-chain issues.

For Kiwis who don't want to wait there's still different Covid measures in place travellers need to know about before they go.

At present, anyone returning from sunning themselves on Mediterranean beaches or visiting family overseas has to upload a Covid test result as part of the Traveller Declaration system.

Other Covid information that needs to be provided includes vaccination status and travel history. There have been reports of travellers struggling with this process and saying it has caused unnecessary stress and cost.

The overall Traveller Declaration system is set to stay, so being prepared with vaccination data handy before travellers fly is going to be normal, another part of travel documentation.

In New Zealand the rationale for keeping the test requirement until August has been questioned for a while.

The seven-day average of confirmed cases and deaths per million people in New Zealand and Australia, while falling, is still higher than in Germany, France, Britain, the US and Canada, according to Our World in Data.

New Zealand has struggled to get confirmed community case numbers to a lower level for months. Sunday's figure of 4402 was among the best results since 3297 on February 23 but lifted slightly again yesterday to 4413. Daily cases detected at the border have been small with the majority under 100.

The seven-day average for people in hospital because of, or with, the virus was 362 on Sunday and there's been no progress on daily hospital numbers over the past month.

The argument goes that the virus is so widespread here that it makes no difference whether infections arrive by plane or get spread at a workplace.

A difference between New Zealand and Northern Hemisphere countries is we are now in winter with flu circulating; our Covid numbers are still too high; transmissible Omicron subvariants are here; and booster effectiveness for most people who got one will now be waning. Some people will be eligible for another booster in July but not all.

Experts have predicted a winter surge and some general extra caution is welcome to prevent hospitals being overwhelmed in the next two months. Whether that still needs to include the pre-departure test is debatable.