South African President Cyril Ramaphosa urged countries that banned flights from his nation following the detection of a new variant of the coronavirus to lift these bans "immediately and urgently," a stance supported by the World Health Organization, which called for "keeping borders open." In a televised address on Sunday evening, Ramaphosa expressed his "great disappointment" regarding the "completely unjustified" border closures, which he described as "discrimination against our country" and neighboring nations affected by the same measure.
Dozens of countries decided to prevent travel from South Africa and its surrounding nations after South African scientists identified the "Omicron" variant last week. Ramaphosa emphasized that "the travel ban is not based on scientific justification," adding: "The only thing that the travel ban will result in is further damage to the economies of the countries involved and undermine their ability to respond to the pandemic and recover from it." He continued: "These restrictions are unjustified and are considered unfair discrimination against our country and the neighboring countries in Southern Africa."
Despite the World Health Organization classifying "Omicron" as a variant of concern, scientists are still evaluating it. Ramaphosa affirmed that "the strongest tool" to reduce the transmission of the variant is the vaccine, urging his citizens to receive it, and revealed that his government is considering making vaccinations mandatory for certain activities and places in an effort to increase the vaccination rate. Just over 35 percent of adults in South Africa have been fully vaccinated, due to the slow start of the vaccination campaign and public skepticism toward it.
South Africa is the most affected country by the virus on the continent, officially recording about 2.9 million infections and 89,797 deaths so far. It is believed that "Omicron" has increased infection rates in the country, with an average of 1,600 new daily cases reported over the past week compared to 500 daily cases in the previous week. Botswana announced on Sunday that it had recorded 19 cases of the "Omicron" variant, according to Health Minister Edwin Dikoloti at a press conference in the capital Gaborone.
The World Health Organization stated that it "stands with African countries and calls for keeping borders open," urging nations to adopt a "scientific approach" based on "risk assessment." Ramaphosa stressed in his televised speech that the travel restrictions imposed by countries directly contradict the commitments made by the G20 in Rome last month, in favor of tourism and international travel. Malawian President Lazarus Chakwera, who currently holds the rotating presidency of the Southern African Development Community (SADC), which includes 16 countries in the southern continent, declared that the "unilateral travel restrictions" imposed by Britain, the European Union, the United States, Australia, and other countries are unjustified. He added: "We are all concerned about the new variant of (COVID-19), and we should thank South African researchers who identified it before others. But decisions should be based on scientific facts, not on African phobia."
