Past England, Northern Eire, Norway and Barbados, locations that don’t at the moment have masks necessities within the air embody Mexico, St. Lucia, the Bahamas and Jamaica. The USA, Scotland, Italy and China are among the many many international locations that proceed to require masks on planes.
Airport guidelines could also be stricter than aircraft guidelines on a given route, which means a traveler might need to placed on a masks upon arrival. Airports in Norway, Denmark and England have been outliers in lifting masks necessities, in keeping with the Airports Council Worldwide, a commerce group representing almost 2,000 airports.
When can I cease flying with a masks in the US?
Possibly on April 19, if — and that’s a giant if — the White Home doesn’t prolong the federal masks mandate additional. Even flight attendants are divided on whether or not the mandate needs to be prolonged once more, with some saying that the masks rule will not be value it, given the issues implementing it, whereas others argue that the rule is crucial to protecting medically weak vacationers secure.
Ought to Covid case counts have an effect on masks mandates?
It depends upon whom you ask.
The world over, case depend numbers range. In current weeks, case numbers have dipped to their lowest stage since June in the US. Canada can be right down to its lowest variety of circumstances since December. However in lots of different locations, circumstances are rising. As England moved away from airport and airline masks mandates on March 16, case counts hit their highest level in almost a month. In the meantime, a extremely transmissible subvariant often known as BA.2 is pummeling some elements of Asia and Europe. And on Sunday, Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, the Biden Administration’s high adviser on the pandemic, predicted that the US would finally see the same “uptick” of BA.2 circumstances.
“Covid will not be over,” mentioned Leonard Marcus, the director of Harvard’s Aviation Public Well being Initiative, which produced a report that some airline executives have used to rationalize ending masks necessities. Dr. Marcus mentioned that it’s too quickly for him to have an opinion on whether or not BA.2 deserves an extension of the federal masks mandate. However as soon as lifted, he mentioned, a masks mandate will likely be troublesome to reinstate.
Some proponents of ending masks mandates argue that as long as vaccines are stopping critical illness, case counts are irrelevant, as a result of most worldwide vacationers are vaccinated.
In an announcement saying the tip of its masks requirement final week, Heathrow Airport embodied this line of considering, mentioning “the sturdy safety offered by vaccination applications around the globe” and an embrace of a “transfer in direction of studying to dwell with Covid long term.”