According to the World Travel and Tourism Council, in 2019 tourism contributed nearly US$9 trillion to the world’s GDP and accounted for 330 million jobs (roughly one in 10 jobs around the world). India in 2019 itself contributed 194$Bn to the country GDP ranking 10th out of the 185 economies in the world. But due to the pandemic, the CII estimation suggests that the loss of revenue in the tourism sector can range between Rs 72,000 crore ($10 billion and Rs 1,58,000 crores ($ 22 billion) in 2020-21. And at the global level, the United Nations World Tourism Organization is predicting a fall within the range of $910 billion to $1 trillion in international tourism spending.

The first Coronavirus Vaccine will likely get authorised within months, but that will only be the beginning of what’s likely to be a long, chaotic vaccination process, the New York Times reports. Vaccines expected during the last quarter of 2020(with Pfizer leading the race at 90% trials efficiency). This is another impressive number as researchers were expecting efficacy rates of around 60%–70%, considering these were first-generation vaccines. But 90% is a remarkable number according to most research experts. Governments are already in the unenviable position of balancing public health with the need to revive the economy. Therefore, the idea behind “Digital Passports” is that they would allow people who have recovered from the coronavirus to signal their immunity and thus move around freely, enabling economies to open up. These passports, therefore, are published to blockchains where the data is kept secure, permanent, and immutable. 

Caveat: – According to experts, reinfection is rare but possible because immunity is never 100%. Few cases of COVID-19 reinfection have been reported across the world and have raised the concern about people’s immunity to the coronavirus