BY BLAIR MHONE
Government through the Presidential Task Force on Coronavirus has today further eased Covid-19 requirements for incoming travelers through different points of entries including the Airports and land crossings effective June 1st 2022.
The new requirements among other things are touted to be a big boost to the tourism industry which has heavily suffered due to the Covid-19 Pandemic while at the same time affecting the country’s source of foreign currencies.
A statement released by Minister of Health Khumbize Chiponda Kandodo who is Co-Chairperson of the taskforce outlines that all incoming travelers including Malawians that are fully vaccinated and have a digital COVID-19 vaccination certificate will no longer be required to produce a COVID-19 PCR certificate prior to entering the country.
In addition, all incoming travelers including Malawians that are not fully vaccinated or don’t have a valid electronically verifiable COVID-19 full vaccination certificate will be required to produce a negative PCR based COVID-19 certificate that is not older than 72 hours at the time of arrival in the country and COVID-19 PCR certificate and or full COVID-19 vaccination certificate requirement for outgoing travellers will depend on the destination country’s requirements.
“The public is further informed that the COVID-19 vaccination program is continuing across the country and let me take this opportunity to encourage all those that are aged 12 years and above to get vaccinated at the earliest possible time to ensure that they are protected from developing severe disease, risk of hospitalization and deaths due to COVID-19.
“Globally, there is strong evidence that the COVID-19 vaccines are safe and effective in reducing the severity of the COVID-19 to those that have been fully vaccinated,” reads the report in part
The statement further states that evidence from the country’s COVID-19 data indicates that the majority that are being admitted due to severe COVID-19 and those dying from COVID-19 are not vaccinated.
“The best time to get vaccinated is now so that our bodies are prepared to fight the disease when exposed to the virus. We have adequate stocks of the COVID-19 vaccines (Pfizer, Johnson and Johnson and AstraZeneca) in all our vaccinations sites across the country. Let me request those that have received the vaccines already to be role models and encourage everyone who is eligible to get vaccinated,” adds Kandodo-Chiponda.
