South African President and WHO Official Criticize ‘Unjustified’ Travel Bans From Omicron Variant
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The President of South Africa and an official from the World Health Organization criticized on Sunday countries banning travel following the discovery of the Omicron variant of Covid-19.
“Travel restrictions may play a role in slightly reducing the spread of COVID-19 but place a heavy burden on lives and livelihoods,” Matshidiso Moeti said in a statement. “If restrictions are implemented, they should not be unnecessarily invasive or intrusive, and should be scientifically based, according to the International Health Regulations, which is a legally binding instrument of international law recognized by over 190 nations.”
Moeti praised the South African government for alerting international health organizations promptly about the discovery of the new variant.
South African president Cyril Ramaphosa similarly blasted “unjustified” travel bans based on the Omicron variant on Sunday, calling on countries with bans to “urgently reverse their decisions… before any further damage is done to our economies.”
“The only thing the prohibition on travel will do is to further damage the economies of the affected countries and undermine their ability to respond to, and recover from, the pandemic,” Ramaphosa said.
While experts caution that there is not enough data to draw conclusions about the severity of the variant, early cases have caused only mild illness.
Outside of Africa, the variant has been detected in the Netherlands, Denmark, Australia, Canada and other countries.
In the wake of Omicron, Israel barred entry to foreigners, Morocco announced it would suspend all incoming flights for two weeks starting Monday, and U.S. is set to ban travel from eight African countries beginning Monday. Australia, Thailand and Sri Lanka are also blocking travel from South Africa and neighboring countries.
Moeti criticized travel bans targeting solely Africa, saying it “attacks global solidarity.”
“With the omicron variant now detected in several regions of the world, putting in place travel bans that target Africa attacks global solidarity,” Moeti said. “COVID-19 constantly exploits our divisions. We will only get the better of the virus if we work together for solutions.”
