JOHANNESBURG, South Africa
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa on Sunday called on countries to “immediately and urgently” reverse scientifically “unjustified” travel bans linked to the discovery of the new coronavirus variant Omicron.
Dozens
of nations from Europe to Asia have blacklisted South Africa and its neighbours
since South African scientists flagged Omicron on November 25.
The
flight bans have angered several African leaders.
“We
call upon all those countries that have imposed travel bans on our country and
our southern African sister countries to immediately and urgently reverse their
decisions,” Ramaphosa said in his first address to the nation following last week’s
detection of the new variant.
The
World Health Organization has labelled Omicron a variant of concern, while
scientists are still assessing its virulence.
A
“deeply disappointed” Ramaphosa argued that the ban was “not informed by
science”.
The countries that have already imposed travel restrictions on southern Africa include key travel hub Qatar, the United States, Britain, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the Netherlands.
Earlier
Sunday, Malawian President Lazarus Chakwera accused Western countries of
“Afrophobia” for shutting their borders.
And
in Botswana, the other southern African country to detect the strain — among a
group of foreign diplomatic visitors in the first instance — two ministers
cautioned against “geo-politicising this virus”.
“We
are concerned that there seem to have been attempts to stigmatise the country
where it was detected,” Health Minister Edwin Dikoloti, said on Sunday.
The
head of the WHO in Africa was equally worried.
“With
the Omicron variant now detected in several regions of the world, putting in
place travel bans that target Africa attacks global solidarity,” said WHO
regional director general Matshidiso Moeti in a statement.
Ramaphosa
warned that the travel ban would “further damage the economies (and) undermine
their ability to respond to and recover from the pandemic”.
South
Africa, the continent’s most industrialised country, is struggling with slow
economic growth and a more than 34 percent unemployment rate.
The
travel curbs are another major blow to its key tourism industry, which had set
high hopes on the upcoming southern hemisphere summer.
Ramaphosa
blasted the G20 countries for abandoning commitments made at a meeting in Rome
last month to support the recovery of the tourism sector in developing
countries.
On
Sunday, he added: “Instead of prohibiting travel, the rich countries of the
world need to support the efforts of developing economies to access and to
manufacture enough vaccine doses for their people without delay.
“These
restrictions are unjustified.”
Ramaphosa
called on rich countries to stop fuelling vaccine inequality, describing jabs
as the “most powerful tool” to limit Omicron’s transmission.
He
once again appealed to South Africans to get their shots, and said the
government was considering making vaccines mandatory for certain activities and
locations in a bid to increase uptake.
“Vaccines
do work,” he said. “Vaccines are saving lives.”
Just
over 35 percent of adults in South Africa have been fully inoculated after a
slow start to the vaccine campaign, with vaccine hesitancy widespread.
The
country is Africa’s worst hit by Covid, with around 2.9 million cases and
89,797 deaths reported to date.
Omicron
is believed to be fuelling a rise in infections, with 1,600 new cases recorded
on average in the past seven days compared to 500 the previous week.
No comments:
Post a Comment