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South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has called on countries to reverse travel restrictions linked to the discovery of a new variant of coronavirus by “scientifically unjustified” “urgency”.
His comments on Sunday continued to spread around the world a highly mutated variant – called Omicron – with new cases identified in the Netherlands, Denmark and Australia.
Dozens of countries have blacklisted South Africa and its neighbors since South African scientists marked the new variant this week. The World Health Organization (WHO) has designated Omicron as a “variant of concern” that is more contagious than previous variants.
“We call on our country and all our fraternal countries in South Africa to impose travel bans immediately and to delay urgent decisions,” Ramaphosa said in his first nationwide address since Omicron was detected.
“The ban on travel is not reported by science,” he added.
“The only thing that a travel ban will do is further damage the economies of the affected countries and weaken their ability to respond and recover from the pandemic,” he added.
“These restrictions are unjustified and unfairly discriminate against our country and our brothers in South Africa.”
It has a sudden landing of flights he was terrified The tourism industry in South Africa is vital, increasing the cancellation of bookings directly after the announcement. The country’s tourism sector lost $ 10 billion in reserves in 2020 as a result of the decline in foreign visitors, and it is estimated that it will lose about $ 10 billion a week when flights from major foreign tourism markets are suspended.
Reported from Johannesburg, Fahmida Miller of Al Jazeera said there had been “great frustration” among government officials and members of the scientific community over the travel restrictions.
“There is great concern about what these travel restrictions mean [economically] As a region for southern Africa, especially before the holidays, when thousands of visitors from Europe are expected, ”he said. “A lot of anger from the president and the government over the good work, they say, has been done by scientists in genome sequencing and tracking changes to COVID-19, but they have punished South Africa.”
As soon as South Africa identified the Omicron variant for notifying the UN health agency, South Africa’s WHO regional director Matshidiso Moeti also criticized travel restrictions and urged countries to follow science and international health regulations. such measures.
“Travel restrictions may have the effect of slightly reducing the spread of COVID-19, but they can also place a heavy burden on life and livelihoods,” Moetik said in a statement. “If restrictions are imposed, they must not be unnecessarily invasive or invasive, and must be scientifically based, in accordance with International Health Regulations, a binding legal instrument of international law recognized by more than 190 nations.”
Shabir Madhi, a South African vaccinator, told Al Jazeera that it was “naive” for countries to “believe that the general ban on countries in southern Africa could stop the spread of this variant.”
“The virus has already found its way into people in these societies who have not traveled or contacted anyone in southern Africa,” he said. “In South Africa, we have one of the best sequencing capabilities at COVID based on our experience in treating HIV and TV. We have been ahead of the game for a long time and so we are the victims of our success.”
While scientists are still evaluating Omicron’s virulence, the WHO said on Sunday that it was “not yet clear” whether the variant spreads more easily from person to person or other strains that cause the infection to cause more serious disease.
“There is currently no information to suggest that Omicron-related symptoms are different from other variants,” the agency said.
Although initial evidence suggests that people who previously had COVID-19 may be at increased risk of re-infection with Omicron, information is currently limited.
The WHO said PCR tests continue to detect infection with Omicron, adding that it is working to understand the possible effects of variants on existing countermeasures, including vaccines.
In his speech, Ramaphosa said the vaccine was “the most powerful tool” to limit transmission and called on South Africans to receive the coup.
He said the government should make vaccines mandatory for certain activities and places in order to increase reception.
About 35 per cent of South African adults have been completely inoculated due to the slow start to their vaccination campaign and widespread doubt.
The country is the most affected virus in Africa, with 2.9 million cases and 89,797 deaths so far.
Omicron is believed to be boosting the rise in infections, with an average of 1,600 new cases reported in the last seven days compared to 500 last week.
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