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Crowds at Johannesburg Airport: Tourists and business travelers want to leave South Africa as soon as possible.
Because of the spread of a new, possibly more dangerous, variant of the coronavirus, the EU Commission wants to limit travel from southern Africa to the EU to an absolute minimum.
The British government is completely stopping air traffic from South Africa and neighboring countries because of the new virus variant.
So many Britons have to leave the country head over heels.
Rodger Upton British Tourist “It's totally annoying. We had booked our flights for a week, but we got the message from our daughter in the UK around 12:30 or 1:00 last night that the UK was going to adopt a red list. "
Gloria Ndoro South African »It's unfair, it's unwarranted, it's abrupt and it's not good for tourism in South Africa. We know Virgin (Airlines) has brought a lot of tourists to South Africa and since the rules were passed last night people have been desperate to get back to the UK. The effects on tourism in South Africa are devastating, which is very unfortunate. "
Outbound travelers are only allowed to fly with a negative test.
Bronwen Cook British Tourist "I was very emotional, I was happy to see my family, but now I want to go home to my husband and children, so I hope I can make this flight with the test and all."
The spread of variant B.1.1.529 is also causing concern in Germany.
South Africa has been declared a virus variant area.
In addition, increased border controls were announced.
Returnees from South Africa were asked by the Ministry of Health to voluntarily quarantine and take a PCR test.
Meanwhile, the World Health Authority is examining how dangerous the new virus variant is.
And whether the available vaccines might be less effective against B.1.1.529.