Countries face a second surge in the number of cases

Surges have been reported in countries all over the world that were previously hailed for keeping the numbers in control. For example, Australia reported a record daily rise in the number of positive cases, Vietnam had to suddenly lock down Danang, forcing tourists to evacuate and Mainland China has confirmed the most number of locally transmitted cases since the start of March. Even Papua New Guinea had to shut its borders.

Not just these countries there are many others that had to take sudden strict steps to stop the surge of the spread of the coronavirus. Just a few weeks before travel had resumed in European countries, when due to the surge of infection in Spain Britain ordered two weeks of quarantine for the travellers from Spain, wrecking the trip plans of many.

Experts opinion on travel ban during the surge of coronavirus

According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), travel restrictions are not the answer for the long term and countries have to do more than just halting travel, like adopting proven methods of social distancing and wearing masks.

Mike Ryan, WHO emergencies programme director, said, "It is going to be almost impossible for individual countries to keep their borders shut for the foreseeable future. Economies have to open up, people have to work, trade has to resume. What is clear is pressure on the virus pushes the numbers down. Release that pressure and cases creep back up."

Officials of some European and Asian countries, where there is a new surge in the number of cases, claim that the new surge would not be as bad as the one that hit us at the beginning of the year and can be controlled by taking appropriate measures, nationwide lockdowns are not needed.

According to one of the Junior Health Ministers of Britain, many countries could be added to the red list other than Spain if they notice the rate going up as they cannot risk letting coronavirus spread in the UK again. Airlines and travel industries that survived the first wave now worry that a second aborted reopening can prove fatal.

Effect of second wave of coronavirus and measures taken

In the US, the certain states that reopened soon after a lockdown in spring are now setting records in the number of cases, as the US becomes the worst affected country by the coronavirus pandemic. In China, where they managed to curb the spread in the first wave with strict lockdowns are now facing a new surge of infections in the northwestern region of Xinjiang, Liaoning province and Jilin province.

In Australia, a complete lockdown has been enforced in the southeastern states of Victoria that could last longer, as the country records a new highest in the daily number of cases. In Japan, the government is asking businesses to change and balance shifts of their employees to bring down the number of telecommuters at a time. The Economy Minister Yasutoshi Nishimura said, "At one point, commuter numbers were down by 70 to 80%, but now it's only about 30%. We really don't want to backtrack on this."

In Vietnam, the Government is focused on evacating 80,000 tourists, mostly domestic, from Danang, after 3 residents were reported positive. The country had reported no community spread cases of coronavirus since April. Papua New Guinea closed its borders too as the number of cases in the country doubled in the past two weeks.