South Africa questions UK flight ban over global alarm over COVID variant Reuters

By Alexander Winning

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) – South Africa said on Friday that a ban on British flights from six southern African countries was accelerated as a result of a new variant of COVID-19, as EU authorities prepared similar measures and called an emergency meeting of the World Health Organization (WHO).

Scientists have so far detected a relatively small variant of B.1.1.529, mainly in South Africa, but also in Botswana and Hong Kong, but have said they are concerned about its large number of mutations, which may be resistant to vaccines. more transmissible.

Britain said it was still the most significant variant found since noon on Friday after flights from South Africa, Botswana, Lesotho, Eswatini, Zimbabwe and Namibia were banned.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said the EU also aims to halt air travel in the region, and described it in a tweet as a “worrying” variant.

An WHO working group on the evolution of viruses will meet on Friday to discuss whether or not to officially award this label, a designation given so far to only four variants.

WHO epidemiologist Maria Van Kerkhove said in a video posted on Twitter (NYSE 🙂 that it may take a few weeks to understand the effect of mutations in the variant.

Randa was down more than 2% against the dollar early Friday as the variant worried investors. Stock prices in South Africa also fell.

He will speak to British authorities in South Africa to try to reconsider the ban, the Pretoria Foreign Ministry said.

“Our immediate concern is the damage this decision will cause to the tourism industries and businesses in both countries,” Foreign Minister Naledi Pandor said in a statement.

As Asian countries also went to tighten borders, two Welsh rugby clubs in South Africa made an effort to leave as soon as possible, and British and Irish golfers came out of the Johannesburg Open.

South Africa – the most affected in Africa by all COVID cases and deaths – experienced calm after a third wave of serious infections, until new infections began to grow last week.

On Thursday, the National Institute of Communicable Diseases (NICD) reported 2,465 new cases, almost double the number the previous day. Although the NICD did not link the recovery to variant B.1.1.529, leading local scientists suspect that is the reason.

The African Centers for Disease Control and Prevention strongly recommended travel bans to countries that complained about the variant. “The imposition of bans on travelers from countries that have reported a new variant has not yielded significant results,” he said.