Whether coronavirus is a natural disease or whether it is man-made, manufactured in 2019 in the laboratory in Wuhan, China, it has made a tragic impact on the entire world. As of writing, 7,325,854 people have been infected, out of whom 413,763 have died. Because the virus is still on the loose in many countries, presently hitting the United States, Brazil, Russia, and the United Kingdom most severely, there is no augur who can predict what lies in store for people in the second part of 2020. The World Health Organization says that the resurgence of coronavirus is highly probable. People can soon face a second wave of infection or its second peak, or, in the countries where coronavirus has never been stemmed, a continuing first wave. Asymptomatic cases of transmission can happen in all scenarios. Even if the world is lucky to get a vaccine by the end of this year, the WHO scientists warn that it could take up to four or five years to attain herd immunity and rein coronavirus in.
Despite the rising death tall in the USA, Brazil, and other countries, and despite the WHO’s pessimistic predictions, many nations have started lifting the quarantine restrictions imposed in March. Motivated to minimize the detrimental impact on people, society, and businesses, Finland, like other countries, eased its national lockdown at the beginning of this month. Although Finnish government is still wary about reopening land-based casinos and slot machines, advising Finns to gamble meanwhile on any of the websites listed at nettikasinot.com, it has already given them freedom to congregate in larger groups in parks and restaurants. Finnish people can now throw birthday parties, as long as there are only 50 guests invited to them. They can sip drinks in bars and root for their favorite teams at stadiums. They are also welcome now to borrow books from public libraries and watch films in movie theatres. Preschool and elementary school children has recently reunited with their teachers and have started performing sports activities outside. Sporting competitions and events have been allowed, though subject to pos-quarantine restrictions.
Finnish people can now make business trips to different parts of Finland and venture abroad within the Schengen area. Finnair has resumed flying to Oulu, London, Frankfurt, Berlin, Munich, Oslo, Amsterdam, Tallinn, Riga, and Zurich, among other cities. Finavia Ouj, the public limited airport operator, has said that internal border control would be in place until the middle of June. It will also maintain restrictions for travelling outside the Schengen area. Passenger entering Finnish airports are required to cover their faces and use hand sanitizers available on all floors. They are also expected to maintain a safe distance from other people to curb the spread of coronavirus infection.
In other airports in the world, restriction measures are even more stringent. Although the United Kingdom began to emerge from under the national lockdown on 1 June, it tightened the grip on all arrivals to the country. The new law obliges every person landing in Britain, be it a Briton or a foreigner, to enter home isolation for 14 days. The only travelers exempt from the 14-day self-isolation period are those arriving from the island of Ireland. Conservative Prime Minister Boris Johnson is convinced that the new self-isolation requirements will prevent people from further exacerbating the already gruesome health situation in the country.
Airlines are angered by the new law and threaten legal actions against it. They say that the airline industry has tumbled during the coronavirus pandemic, being grounded for several months, and will take longer to recover, if these measures are introduced. According to Bloomberg, the airline sector has already lost $314 billion in ticket sales, which is 25 percent more than initially expected, because the coronavirus pandemic is dragging longer than was at first predicted. Social distancing regulations and the United Kingdom’s self-isolation rule will only hamper the airline industry’s revenue. People also comment that the restrictions on arrivals are not sensible, because the majority of the countries, save the United States, Brazil, and Russia, have been hit by coronavirus far less severely than Britain. Travelers arriving from them thus carry a smaller risk of infection than local people do while staying put within the United Kingdom’s borders. For this reason, many countries have denied entry to people departing from Britain.
While Britain is introducing restrictions on arrivals and Finland, along with other European countries, are opening their borders, nations where the number of fatalities is still large are keeping their airports shut down. Albania’s borders are closed, and so are those of Denmark. Greece started letting some travelers in yesterday, but issued banning orders to visitors form the United Kingdom. France is meanwhile allowing access only to French citizens and legal workers possessing a travel certificate. Georgia will gradually resume flights from July 1. Luxembourg still has no passenger flights scheduled from Luxembourg airport.
Travelling rules in every country change these days almost daily. As coronavirus’ development is unpredictable, countries constantly update their regulations according to the news received from their medical centers.
