What to expect when travelling overseas this December

The Covid-19 pandemic has resulted in several changes being made to international travel regulations in an attempt to restrict the spread of the virus.

Travel to and from South Africa picked up in 2021 following the lifting of travel restrictions and increased vaccination rates worldwide.

Those wishing to travel to and from South Africa will need to adhere to specific regulations under our current adjusted level-one lockdown.

The regulations include:

• Travellers need to provide a valid certificate with a negative Covid-19 test outcome, recognised by the World Health Organisation or equivalent local accredited authority, within 72 hours before the date of travel. Authorities have the right to verify the authenticity of the certificate.
• If a traveller cannot produce a valid certificate showing their Covid-19 status upon arrival in South Africa, the traveller will have to complete an antigen test at their own cost.
• Should a traveller test positive for Covid-19, they shall be required to isolate him or herself for ten days at their own expense.
• Passengers must wear a face mask at all times and may only remove a face mask during an emergency or when instructed by cabin crew to take it off and must observe social distancing.

Travellers must also adhere to the regulations of their destination countries.

MyBroadband recently spoke to a person who had travelled to Dubai, and they explained that they needed to provide a negative PCR test result no more than 48 hours old, and do a rapid test at the airport prior to departure.

Upon arrival, travellers have to get another PCR test and must isolate in their hotel until they get their results. Results are usually available within 24 hours.

Before they could leave the United Arab Emirates, they had to get another PCR test in compliance with South African traveller protocols.

A MyBroadband staff member also recently travelled to Botswana. After adhering to the necessary regulations, they observed that most changes — barring wearing masks during the flight — were evident within the airports and not the flights themselves.

Many of the entry and exits at the international terminal were closed, while those that previously allowed for both entry and exit were now dedicated to one or the other.

As a result, it took quite a bit of walking to get to the right doors to enter or exit the building, which you might have to consider if you plan to cut it close on your timing.

Each entrance had a sanitising station for passengers and visitors. Security personnel also checked people’s temperatures using a thermal camera.

Check-in was mainly similar to the process followed before the Covid-19 pandemic, with the only addition being the completion of the Covid-19 traveller health questionnaire.

Filling out the form was easier said than done as there were no pens available. Therefore, it is important to bring a pen or download the form and complete it in advance.

The form is also embedded in this article.

President Cyril Ramaphosa announced the opening of international travel in South Africa towards the end of 2020.

“We are also opening up international travel to all countries subject to the necessary health protocols and the presentation of a negative Covid-19 certificate,” he said.

Despite this, it still took some time for travel to and from the country to pick up, as several countries still had travel restrictions against South Africa.

The United Kingdom only lifted its travel restrictions in October 2021, after which it — and the US — promptly re-established its travel ban for South Africa upon the discovery of the Omicron variant.

According to a Bloomberg report, more than 90 countries closed their borders to travellers from South Africa after the new variant emerged.

As a result of the impact on our tourism sector, South Africa is unlikely to achieve its economic growth forecast of 5.1% for 2021.

The UK removed all 11 countries from its red list earlier this week.

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