{"id":15045,"date":"2022-03-17T05:37:27","date_gmt":"2022-03-17T05:37:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/relief-for-tourism-as-govt-scraps-strict-covid-19-conditions"},"modified":"2022-03-17T06:16:23","modified_gmt":"2022-03-17T06:16:23","slug":"relief-for-tourism-as-govt-scraps-strict-covid-19-conditions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/relief-for-tourism-as-govt-scraps-strict-covid-19-conditions","title":{"rendered":"Relief for tourism ..as Govt scraps strict Covid-19 conditions"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Namibia. <\/strong><\/span>THE tourism industry has breathed a sigh of relief following a move by the government to allow vaccinated tourists to enter the country using their authentic vaccination cards.<\/b><\/p>\n

Chief executive officer of the Hospitality Association of Namibia (HAN) Gitta Paetzold described the decision as a welcome development. She said Namibia has followed in the footsteps of other leading tourist destinations.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe timing has also been very important and valuable, as now is the time that international travellers finalise their plans for their annual holidays coming up in July-September and will thus be encouraged to choose Namibia as an open, accessible and welcoming country as their travel destination of choice,\u201d he stated.<\/p>\n

Her sentiment came after the government scrapped strict Covid-19 regulations, including the mandatory wearing of face masks and setting aside the requirement for tourists to produce a negative PCR test result upon arrival at Namibian points of entry.<\/p>\n

President Hage Geingob announced the relaxed conditions yesterday. \u201cThe abolishment of the mandatory face mask mandate does not mean the abolishment of common sense. On the contrary, common sense must continue to prevail,\u201d Geingob said.<\/p>\n

The new regulations come after the World Health Organisation adjusted the outbreak from a pandemic to an endemic disease. Geingob said the reclassification of the outbreak to endemic should not give citizens a false sense of security.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe must continue to be vigilant to further control the spread and the upsurge in new cases,\u201d he added. Geingob also adjusted the number of people allowed in public gatherings from 500 to 1 000.<\/p>\n

\u201cA reprieve does not mean the end of the pandemic. We must continue to care for ourselves and the vulnerable members of our society, who are more susceptible, by continuing to protect ourselves so that new clusters of infection do not form,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Geingob also implored citizens to get vaccinated. As of yesterday, only 21,4% of the country’s eligible population was fully vaccinated. \u201cThis is one third of the WHO recommended population coverage of 60% to achieve national herd immunity,\u201d Geingob said. Health minister Kalumbi Shangula says the relaxation of public health measures does not imply that the danger of Covid-19 infection is over.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople are encouraged to keep on wearing their masks. Let us look at it this way! When it is raining, you do not expect the government to tell you to use your umbrella. You do it out of your own volition because it is a necessity. The same should apply to wearing masks. You are in charge of your own protection and that of the other people around you,\u201d Shangula said.<\/p>\n

Shangula said the decision did not consider the forthcoming independence celebrations. \u201cWe will not be influenced by any event whatsoever if that puts the lives of the Namibian people in danger,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He added that, \u201cCurrently, there is a law that if you don’t wear your mask, you’re breaking the law and there are consequences and that is the element we are removing. But still, people are encouraged to wear their masks for their own protection.\u201d Former health minister Bernard Haufiku said the public was largely not abiding by the regulation of wearing masks or wearing them correctly.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe only people we are addressing now are those who have been wearing their masks with commitment. I think we need to create an environment where people feel that things don’t just remain bad. The truth is that cases at the moment are not as high as last year,\u201d he said. The former minister added that a number of people, even though in a minority, have been vaccinated against Covid-19.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo you have a combination of things here. Low statistics, some have partly vaccine update, most definite strong natural immunity because up to a million Namibians must have been affected by the coronavirus, and that created a sort of natural population immunity, maybe temporarily,\u201d he said, adding that the transmission is not as bad as it was previously.<\/p>\n

For More News And Analysis About Namibia<\/a> Follow Africa-Press<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Namibia. THE tourism industry has breathed a sigh of relief following a move by the government to allow vaccinated tourists to enter the country using their authentic vaccination cards. Chief executive officer of the Hospitality Association of Namibia (HAN) Gitta Paetzold described the decision as a welcome development. She said Namibia has followed […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":15044,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,4,8,16],"tags":[234,236,233],"class_list":["post-15045","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-culture-and-art","category-homepage-english","category-twitter","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-namibia","tag-namibia"],"yoast_head":"\nRelief for tourism ..as Govt scraps strict Covid-19 conditions - Namibia<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"THE tourism industry has breathed a sigh of relief following a move by the government to allow vaccinated tourists to ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/relief-for-tourism-as-govt-scraps-strict-covid-19-conditions\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Relief for tourism ..as Govt scraps strict Covid-19 conditions\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"THE tourism industry has breathed a sigh of relief following a move by the government to allow vaccinated tourists to ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/relief-for-tourism-as-govt-scraps-strict-covid-19-conditions\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Namibia\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-03-17T05:37:27+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-03-17T06:16:23+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nambia\/sites\/29\/2022\/03\/img-6232d222b48f2.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"720\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"479\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/relief-for-tourism-as-govt-scraps-strict-covid-19-conditions#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/relief-for-tourism-as-govt-scraps-strict-covid-19-conditions\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Relief for tourism ..as Govt scraps strict Covid-19 conditions\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-03-17T05:37:27+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-03-17T06:16:23+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/relief-for-tourism-as-govt-scraps-strict-covid-19-conditions\"},\"wordCount\":679,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/relief-for-tourism-as-govt-scraps-strict-covid-19-conditions#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nambia\/sites\/29\/2022\/03\/img-6232d222b48f2.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"africa press\",\"Africa Press-Namibia\",\"namibia\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"culture and art\",\"homepage-english\",\"twitter\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/relief-for-tourism-as-govt-scraps-strict-covid-19-conditions#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/relief-for-tourism-as-govt-scraps-strict-covid-19-conditions\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/relief-for-tourism-as-govt-scraps-strict-covid-19-conditions\",\"name\":\"Relief for tourism ..as Govt scraps strict Covid-19 conditions - 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