What Endemic Covid Means for Travel in Asia

Set to welcome international travelers from next month, Malaysian Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob announced the country’s transition to the endemic phase; neighboring Thailand has set July 1 as the deadline to declare Covid as endemic.

Having done away with its Covid-zero strategy, Singapore is moving ahead with its plan to treat Covid as endemic, while the Philippines’ move to relax travel restrictions is also in tune with the archipelago’s adoption of an endemic mindset.

The clarion call from Asian tourism hubs to declare Covid as endemic is providing an element of stability to a sector fraught with uncertainty triggered by government flip-flops around border reopening. Along with parts of Africa, Asia is out front with the shift to an endemic stage.

Travel under the pandemic globally has certainly been a quagmire of confusion, but Asia, in particular, has been particularly hard to get a handle on with rules changing so often from country