Bini Dahal

Ping! A notification sound of someone posting a story forced me to open my Instagram. And I could not help but make a bitter remark: “Lo! Another person travelling during this COVID.” Then, I take a screenshot of it and send it to my family group chat. Immediate response arrives: Don’t even imagine; just take a tour of your room already!

In the past two years, what all I have done is binge-watch travel videos around East Asia and Europe. Every two months, I choose a different destination and watch every video carefully. Just a visual walk, the tour is so informative! We can learn about an incredible progress made by other countries, people and their lifestyle and culture as well. Maybe because of the careful watching, I have gotten too familiar with the roads and areas of my dream destinations. I myself found it really funny when I was able to recognise a road of a place in one of the videos.

Many destinations across the world have begun opening their borders to welcome the fully vaccinated tourists from certain countries. This was the reason why I was so excited about getting a jab. Obviously, vaccination cannot completely prevent people from catching the coronavirus. But, as per research, all the available vaccines have the ability to help people cope with serious COVID hospitalisation and even death.

Therefore, a fully vaccination certificate would surely be helpful for travelling. However, the existing COVID-19 infections in Nepal put the country in the list of nations requiring a high level of safety. The same applies with Nepali people travelling abroad. Besides, there is also an issue concerned with vaccines within the country. The government has been organising mass vaccination for the Nepali people with the support from different countries.

The most commonly available vaccine at present is Vero Cell, an inactivated Chinese vaccine. The easy storage requirements make it highly suitable for low-resource settings. Despite being approved by the World Health Organisation (WHO), many countries have not recognised it. Mostly, Moderna, Pfizer, AstraZeneca and Janssen vaccines are placed in the approved list.
Though I have completely stopped thinking about going anywhere, I cannot help but be concerned with this criterion. Though many countries have begun accepting Vero Cell vaccinated travellers, others still show distrust over it. This puts Vero Cell vaccinated countries in a big difficulty.

Hopefully, this will change soon. Even though we do not know when the virus infections will stop, all we can pray for is the situation to get better. But in such a situation, travelling just for fun can be a big headache. Many countries ask travellers to quarantine for any period between seven to 14 days. These quarantines are highly expensive and most of our days are wasted inside the hotel room. That’s why, with the arrival of new variants, it is best to stay at home instead of thinking of travelling, unless it is very important.

Considering how much I really want to travel, I am controlling myself from feeling sad about the current situation. Basically, I am imagining the day when I get to queue outside any embassy for a travel visa. For now, let me take a room detour.