We have been hearing about “new normal” for months now and Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director-general of the World Health Organization, confirmed that “there will be no return to the old normal for the foreseeable future.”

Speaking at a media briefing in Geneva on Monday, he added, “But there is a roadmap to a situation where we can control the disease and get on with our lives. We need to reach a sustainable situation where we do have adequate control of this virus without shutting down our lives entirely or lurching from lockdown to lockdown.”

WHO said that three things are needed to achieve this. These are:

• reducing mortality and suppressing transmission;
• an “empowered, engaged community” that takes individual measures to protect the whole community;
• and strong government leadership and communication.

While there is no effective vaccine against COVID-19 at the moment, we must focus on using the tools and measures that are available to contain the infection and save lives.

What does this mean for travel? As countries began to reopen, travel is slowly picking up, but experts claim that it may take years for the industry to go back to pre-COVID status.

Currently, tourism organisations and companies in every sector are formulating health and safety protocols to boost the confidence of travellers and make them book that flight.