Coronavirus travel bans are leaving more of us stuck abroad – but how effective are they really?

Expert advice from the World Health Organisation on restricting who comes into a country has been clear – but the economic fallout may not be, writes Simon Calder

Air travel has decreased around the world as people fly less during the pandemic (AFP/Getty)

So far on an interestingly timed trip that has encompassed Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Israel, Egypt and Yemen, no teenagers have thrown stones at me while yelling “corona!”. But Roy from the Netherlands – who is another rare tourist on the Yemeni island of Socotra – told me he had been assailed thus in the Egyptian city of Alexandria.

President Trump’s ban on most European travellers is the White House equivalent of youths hurling small projectiles and insults.

It is tempting to see his move as a vote-gathering ploy in an election year, building on the xenophobic rhetoric that proved so effective among (just enough) voters in 2016. But let me be generous and regard the presidential decree as a bid to delay the spread of the feared coronavirus, helping to “flatten the curve” of new cases and thus easing pressure upon finite medical facilities.