Following the detection of a new Covid-19 variant by South African scientists, Israel, Japan, Singapore have followed the United Kingdom and have restricted inbound and outbound travel to southern Africa on Thursday.
READ: South Africa is back on UK’s red list – British Airways cancels flights
South Africa, Lesotho, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Namibia, and Eswatini were also added to Israel’s red list. This means that unless travellers have special permission from Israel’s health ministry, Israelis are banned from travelling to red-listed countries, according to Reuters.
In a similar vein, the European Union (EU) aims to stop air travel from the southern African region. In a Twitter post, the EU Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen has stated that ‘The Commission will propose, in close coordination with Member States, to activate the emergency brake to stop air travel from the southern African region due to the variant of concern B.1.1.529.’
The situation is further stressed by the fourth wave of Covid-19 devastating the 27-nation EU, causing government officials to play catch up via tighter restrictions.
Several Asian countries are also rushing to tighten restrictions, with Singapore announcing stricter borders by restricting arrivals from South Africa and nearby countries as a precaution. Singapore is also implementing more Covid-19 testing requirements.
Japan’s government follows Singapore’s suit and has tightened border controls for South African travellers and five other African countries.
In addition, Spain has also opted to suspend inbound and outbound flights to South Africa and Botswana starting Tuesday, citing concerns about the new variant.
The Philippines has closed its borders to travellers from South Africa and Botswana, or who had been in these countries, effective immediately. The ban is provisionally set until 15 December 2021, pending evaluation.
The new variant, primarily dubbed B.1.1.529, presents with unusual mutations and changes, which raised concerns amongst South African scientists that these mutations would equip the virus with the ability to evade the body’s immune response, effectively increasing infectivity. Early diagnostic testing suggests that the variant has already populated most of the Gauteng province, and may already be present in the other eight provinces.
Currently, South Africa has confirmed 100 specimens of this new variant. In a statement, the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) assured that they are working hard to investigate the new variant: ‘Although the data are limited, our experts are working overtime with all the established surveillance systems to understand the new variant and what the potential implications could be.’
Furthermore, South Africa has requested an urgent sitting with the World Health Organisation (WHO) to discuss the new variant. Amidst South Africa landing back on several red lists, the question about tighter lockdown restrictions has also surfaced, to which Health Minister Joe Phaahla responded that it was too early to say whether or not the government would impose tougher restrictions.
Picture: Andrik Langfield/Unsplash
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