THE South Africa stated today that it is being punished for its advanced ability to detect new variants of the coronavirus in time as the travel restrictions imposed on it due to the new Omicron variant threaten to hit its tourism and other sectors of its economy.
South Africa has some of the world’s leading epidemiologists and scientists who have been able to detect new variants of the coronavirus and their mutations at an early stage in their life cycle.
The Omicron variant was first identified in South Africa and has since been found in Belgium, Botswana, Israel and Hong Kong.
“This latest round of travel restrictions is akin to punishing South Africa for its advanced genomic sequence and its ability to detect new variants more quickly. “Excellent science should be applauded and not punished,” the Ministry of International Relations and Cooperation said in a statement.
Many countries yesterday and today rushed to announce travel restrictions to South Africa and other countries in the region.
The Foreign Ministry notes that while the new variant was found in other countries, the international community reacted “completely differently” to the cases found in South Africa.
The discovery of the new variant was first announced on Wednesday by a team of scientists in South Africa, who announced that they had identified a variant that could potentially weaken the body’s immune response and make it more contagious.
Yesterday, the WHO called it ‘Micron’ and described it as a “variant of concern” – its most serious level – saying that preliminary evidence points to an increased risk of re-infection.
“Our immediate concern is the impact that these restrictions are having on families, the travel industry, the tourism industry and businesses,” South African Foreign Minister Naledi Pantor said in a statement.
The statement said the South African government was in contact with those countries that had imposed travel restrictions in an effort to get them to reconsider.
Yesterday the WHO called on countries not to rush to impose travel restrictions due to the new variant, proposing them to adopt a scientific approach based on risk assessment for the implementation of such measures.
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