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Stranded passengers, closed counters - the entry restrictions that many countries imposed after the discovery of the Omikron variant can be felt at Johannesburg Airport.
South Africa's President has no understanding for this.
Cyril Ramaphosa, President of South Africa
»The entry bans have no scientific basis - they will not prevent the variant from spreading. The travel restrictions will only further damage the economies of the affected countries and with it their ability to fight the pandemic and to recover from it. "
The fear of the newly discovered virus variant is great worldwide: Japan and Israel have completely closed themselves off to foreigners, and many other countries have closed their borders to travelers from South Africa and several other African countries. The discovery of the omicron variant by South African scientists was announced last Thursday. According to previous data, the variant could be more contagious than the currently dominant delta expression because of the unusually large number of mutations. The WHO classifies the global risk emanating from the new variant as "very high" overall. At the same time, Michael J. Ryan from the WHO emergency program stood on the side of South Africa - and spoke out against entry restrictions.
Michael J. Ryan, WHO Emergency Program Director / November 25th
“There must be no over-the-knee restrictions now, especially for South Africa. South Africa has found interesting and important things that we now examine more closely. In the past, new variants were reacted to with border closings and travel restrictions. But it is important that we stay open and focus on understanding the problem. And don't punish countries for doing outstanding scientific work and making their results transparent. In order to defeat this virus, we need good information. And you can only get good information if you can share it without being punished for it. "
EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said on Sunday that time had to be gained until it was clear how dangerous the new variant actually was.
Ursula von der Leyen, EU Commission President
»The motto is: Hope for the best, but prepare for the worst.
Contact restrictions, vaccinations and third party vaccinations now have the highest priority. "
In the meantime, cases of the Omikron variant have appeared in a number of countries, including Germany, Great Britain, the Netherlands, Denmark, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Italy, Portugal and Canada.
