COVID-19 pandemic has brought along new ways of living, which affected travel activities around the world.

In the early days of the pandemic, due to the lack of remedies to advise to cure and protect against the virus, many countries have implemented lockdowns in order to prevent people from meeting physically. In addition to that, mask mandates are also enforced.

Travel has even halted to a grind in the first few months where countries are imposing lockdowns, to a point where many airlines are downsizing and performing resizing exercises to cut loss from the revenue stream that is significantly reduced.

When opening efforts are introduced and travel begins to get revitalised again, additional steps and precautions are added on top of the existing travel regulations and documentation.

This new travel document scheme includes proof of vaccinations, COVID-19 test records and history of COVID-19 infection.

The following paragraphs would continue to detail each document.

Proof of vaccinations is now a compulsory document to be brought along when travelling.

It shows that you are already taking shots to be protected and reduce the risk of being infected by the virus.

This can only be issued by the health authorities in the respective countries where the vaccination is taken.

In Malaysia, it is issued by the Ministry of Health and will appear in the MySejahtera app.

In cases where there are legitimate health concerns and issues that hinder one from getting the vaccination, a medical recommendation letter is also mandatory as a replacement and proof that you are not qualified to take the vaccination due to the pre-existing health conditions.

In order to travel abroad, at times MySejahtera app will not be adequate.

Certain countries will require completing additional documents to record the vaccination proof on their side and for further verification.

In addition to that, travellers need to take COVID-19 tests prior to travelling and have the tests recorded as a document themselves. Negative results are necessary to proceed with the trip.

This extra layer is especially crucial for tracing purposes, to know whether the traveller is already infected from the country of origin, and if positive, will be isolated for recovery first before being allowed to travel again.

In a similar manner, some countries will also require travellers to test again upon arrival at the destination country.

This is to capture any infection that occurred while on air travel. This test result needs to be recorded as well.

As there is a resting period needed to obtain the test results, usually travellers will quarantine at a designated place until the results are out and recorded.

Lastly is proof of COVID-19 infection and recovery history if the traveller has been a COVID-19 positive patient in the past.

This is another important document for authorities to determine whether the traveller has fully recovered from COVID-19 and their risk of infecting other passengers.

Usually, they will look at the period of recovery since they tested positive. Advisably around 60-90 days since the infection will be good enough, any earlier and you may not be allowed to travel any further.