Inconsistencies in post-Covid rules add to travel costs

Last week I made an international trip to a conference for the first time in three years. My last trip before that was to the same series of meetings, in a different African capital, just a few months before the first Covid-19 cases were reported.

In the last two years, we saw countries shut international borders, conferences become virtual rooms and famous hotels close their doors, some never to reopen. But now, even as in-person meetings and conferences resume, travel is a bit more complicated. For instance, to make this trip to West Africa, I had to take my first-ever Covid-19 test. This was at a testing facility next to the airport the day before my flight. I got the negative-test result by email a few hours later. 

I had read up on the travel requirements for the country and the airline, including a transit stop and the conference – and the guidelines did not always match. 

I packed extra facemasks and after uploading my details to the Health ministry portal, I went to a cybercafe and printed several copies of my passport, vaccination record, conference invitation letter, Health ministry record and Covid test result. I spent about Sh500 and had enough copies for every conference, airport or hotel official that required one. But looking back, I had over-prepared.

During the trip, at different airlines, airports and conference desks, we were asked to show either vaccination or Covid results. There was no pattern or deep analysis, and no one asked to retain a copy. So, I am now back home and still with my 80 pages of unused photocopies.

The conference had instituted daily rapid antigen tests. The health ministry had a station at each hotel where the tests were done, at no charge, and a result slip was handed to each person after a few minutes to be shown at the entrance of the conference. 

There, attendees would be handed a new KN95 and asked to throw their old ones in a bin. Masks were worn throughout the conference unless one was a speaker, eating, or far alone. But they were discarded after, back on the bus or at the hotel. 

It was ironic that leaders would not wear masks and conference guests would wear theirs, but outdoors, as the county had dropped mask mandates two months before.

Different rules

Before returning home, I was not required to have another Covid test, as Kenya does not require them of the vaccinated. The airline crews we asked could not help as they are on a different set of regulations. But we decided to get tested and that was a good thing as, again but in reverse, everyone at the airline and airport desks asked to see a printout of a negative Covid test.

The requirement for information is not consistent, but at a bare minimum, you now must travel with a photocopy of a Covid test and vaccination record, in addition to the old passport and yellow fever booklet combination. Having a printout is important as you may get stuck if you have a document on your phone and you can't get an internet connection or your battery dies.

The cost of travelling is already high in Africa, and now you must add the cost of a Covid-19 test to each direction of a conference trip. What's the justification for a $50 test? It costs more than a regular doctor's visit, where you also get tests and medicine. But this is just to swab your nose and send an email. Also, some airlines insist that their passengers use test facilities that may have even higher charges.

Unfortunately, even as these new requirements have come up, and with travel numbers still far below their 2019 levels, few countries have eased visa requirements or waived the costly visas, some of which are as much as $150 for Africans to visit each other.

Also, as they seem to be a permanent fixture, it would be nice if Covid results and vaccine records could be combined with yellow fever, cholera and any others into one neat digital travel document that is easy to carry and store.