NIGERIA’S government and other governments around the world have been urged to tackle the high cost of COVID-19 tests in many jurisdictions and show flexibility towards permitting the use of cost-effective antigen tests as an alternative to more expensive PCR tests.
Presently, Nigeria ranks among countries that collect so much for the COVID-19 test; a situation that has discouraged air travel and also added to the cost of air travel.
The global airline clearing house, International Air Transport Association (IATA) made the declaration in a statement which recommended that governments adopt recent World Health Organisation (WHO) guidance to consider exempting vaccinated travelers from testing requirements.
According to IATA’s most recent traveler survey, 86 per cent of respondents are willing to get tested, 70 per cent also believed that the cost of testing was a significant barrier to travel, while 78 per cent believed governments should bear the cost of mandatory testing.
Speaking, the IATA Director-General, Willie Walsh declared “IATA supports COVID-19 testing as a pathway to reopening borders to international travel. But our support is not unconditional. In addition to being reliable, testing needs to be easily accessible, affordable and appropriate to the risk level.
“Too many governments, however, are falling short on some or all of these. The cost of testing varies widely between jurisdictions, with little relation to the actual cost of conducting the test. The UK is the poster child for governments failing to adequately manage testing. At best it is expensive, at worst extortionate. And in either case, it is a scandal that the government is charging Value Added Tax (VAT).”
The new generation of rapid tests costs less than $10 per test provided a confirmatory rRT-PCR test is administered for positive test results, World Health Organisation (WHO) guidance sees Ag-RDT antigen testing as an acceptable alternative to PCR. And, where testing is a mandatory requirement, the WHO’s International Health Regulations (IHRs) state that neither passengers nor carriers should bear the cost of testing.
While stating that testing needed to be appropriate to the threat level, IATA cited the example of how in the UK, the latest National Health Service data on testing arriving travelers show that more than 1.37 million tests were conducted on arrivals from so-called Amber countries.
Just one per cent tested positive over four months. Meanwhile, nearly three times that number of positive cases are being detected in the general population daily.
“Data from the UK government confirms that international travellers pose little to no risk of importing COVID-19 compared to existing levels of infection in the country. At the very least, therefore, the UK government should follow the WHO guidance and accept antigen tests which are fast, affordable and effective, with a confirmatory PCR test for those who test positive. This could be a pathway for enabling even unvaccinated people to access to travel,” Walsh said.
Restarting international travel is vital to supporting the 46 million travel and tourism jobs around the world that rely on aviation, Walsh further declared “Our latest survey confirms that the high cost of testing will bear heavily on the shape of the travel recovery. It makes little sense for governments to take steps to reopen borders if those steps make the cost of travel prohibitive to most people. We need a restart that is affordable for all.
“It is important that governments listen to the WHO. We have been very clear in terms of solutions to the pandemic and to make vaccines available so that globally, everybody can get access to the vaccines.
“We hope the vaccines in Africa are accelerated to go through 2022. It is not right that rich countries are stockpiling vaccines when there are countries that can’t get access. Given the success that we have, there is the need to have significant availability of vaccines not just to Africa but to countries globally that can’t get vaccines. It is very important, not just for the industry but for everybody.”
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