The United States praised South Africa on Saturday for its "
transparency
" with the rest of the world upon the discovery of the Omicron variant, as Pretoria says it feels "
punished
" and unfairly treated, with its citizens treated in persona non grata .
Read alsoCovid-19: the Omicron variant leads to the first border closures
During a telephone conversation between the chief US diplomat Tony Blinken and his counterpart South African Naledi Pandor, "
Secretary of State Blinken praised the South African scientists for the rapid identification of variant Omicron
" says State Department in a statement.
He also praised "
the South African government for its transparency in sharing this information, which should serve as a model for the world,
" adds American diplomacy.
Travel bans issued by many countries for South Africans amount to "
punishing South Africa for its advanced genomic sequencing and its ability to detect new variants more quickly
," the South African government lamented on Saturday, two days after the announcement of Omicron's discovery.
"
We are sometimes punished for being transparent and doing things quickly,
" regretted South African virology star Tulio de Oliveira, whose team detected the variant.
Conversely, the United States accuses Beijing of waiting too long to share crucial information about the epidemic, saying that more transparent management could have helped stop the spread of the virus.
