COVID-19 Impact | Asian countries most cautious of travel relaxations

As per data from the UN, 70 percent of Asian countries had their borders closed to foreigners till as recent as June 1, up 9 percent compared to September 2020.

Moneycontrol News

July 29, 2021 / 03:12 PM IST

Only 1 percent of global borders were open without any COVID-19 restrictions, as per the UN report released in July 2021. This includes borders of the Dominican Republic, Costa Rica and Albania. (Representative Image: Unsplash)

Asian countries have been among the most cautious of relaxing travel restrictions during the COVID-19 pandemic, a report by the United Nations (UN) World Tourism Organization found.

Ever since the pandemic spread across the globe, with first cases identified in China in 2019 and soon spread to the United States by 2020, countries in Asia have kept their borders shut.

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The difference is “stark”, the report said, especially as the “crisis drags on”, going on close to two years now.

As per Statista, which visualised UN data on travel restrictions between Asia and other continents, 70 percent of Asian countries had their borders closed to foreigners till as recent as June 1, up 9 percent compared to September 2020.

COVID-19 Vaccine

Frequently Asked Questions

How does a vaccine work?

A vaccine works by mimicking a natural infection. A vaccine not only induces immune response to protect people from any future COVID-19 infection, but also helps quickly build herd immunity to put an end to the pandemic. Herd immunity occurs when a sufficient percentage of a population becomes immune to a disease, making the spread of disease from person to person unlikely. The good news is that SARS-CoV-2 virus has been fairly stable, which increases the viability of a vaccine.

How many types of vaccines are there?

There are broadly four types of vaccine — one, a vaccine based on the whole virus (this could be either inactivated, or an attenuated [weakened] virus vaccine); two, a non-replicating viral vector vaccine that uses a benign virus as vector that carries the antigen of SARS-CoV; three, nucleic-acid vaccines that have genetic material like DNA and RNA of antigens like spike protein given to a person, helping human cells decode genetic material and produce the vaccine; and four, protein subunit vaccine wherein the recombinant proteins of SARS-COV-2 along with an adjuvant (booster) is given as a vaccine.

What does it take to develop a vaccine of this kind?

Vaccine development is a long, complex process. Unlike drugs that are given to people with a diseased, vaccines are given to healthy people and also vulnerable sections such as children, pregnant women and the elderly. So rigorous tests are compulsory. History says that the fastest time it took to develop a vaccine is five years, but it usually takes double or sometimes triple that time.

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