South Africa slams countries imposing travel bans due to Omicron fears

Travellers at a check-in counter at OR Tambo International Airport in Johannesberg on Saturday after several countries banned flights from South Africa following the discovery of Omicron. Pics/AFP

South Africa's top health federation on Sunday slammed the 18 nations which have imposed travel bans on the country on fears of the new potentially highly-transmissible variant of COVID-19, Omicron, saying the world must avoid such "knee-jerk reaction" if it wants "transparency" in the sharing of critical medical data.

The new COVID-19 variant B.1.1.529, first detected in South Africa, was on Friday designated as a ‘Variant of Concern' by the World Health Organisation (WHO), which named it ‘Omicron'.

A healthcare worker conducts a COVID-19 test on a traveller at OR Tambo International Airport in Johannesburg on Saturday.

The decision by 18 countries to ban flights to and from South Africa was premature, as there is still not enough information on how dangerous the variant might be, Angelique Coetzee, Chairman of South African Medical Association (SAMA) said.

Coetzee also defended the decision to announce the findings, pointing out that South Africa should be lauded and not vilified for this. "My suspicion is that because our scientists are very alert and doing a lot of sequencing in the background, maybe those European countries missed it because of the symptoms," Coetzee told the TV news channel Newzroom Afrika.

The UK announced on Thursday that all flights to and from South Africa and five neighbouring countries would be banned from Friday. The UK has reported cases of Omicron variant infections.

Many other European countries followed suit, most of them indicating that only their own citizens would be allowed back, subject to a quarantine period. Many other countries have now started to severely regulate or ban flights completely from the African nation.

Coetzee said, "The symptoms are not the same as the Delta (variant). It is very similar to the Beta (variant) and you can easily miss the symptoms. I think what happened with us in South Africa as clinicians is the fact that we have merely seen virtually maybe one or two patients per week in the past eight to ten weeks on COVID-related symptoms.

"When we all of a sudden saw young people, especially men, coming in complaining of extreme fatigue, body aches and pains, headaches and a bit of a scratchy throat, we then started to test again and we found them positive."

‘Being seen as the villains'

Coetzee said they decided to alert the Advisory Council on COVID-19 that there were new symptoms that were not matching with the signs of the Delta variant.

"We were lucky that we had a break in between and saw the new symptoms. But now we are being (seen as) the villains. It's not right. It should never happen like this. If the world wants transparency, they would need to deal much better with this type of data that has been made available," Coetzee said.

"Alert your people. Say that there might be possibility of this going forward. But there's no know way you can just have this kind of knee-jerk reaction and say now you are safe," she added. The Omicron variant has also been detected in Israel, Hong Kong, Belgium Germany, Italy, the Czech Republic and Australia.

More countries find cases of the Omicron variant

Australian health officials on Sunday confirmed two cases of the Omicron coronavirus strain in the country. The two travellers who arrived in Sydney on Saturday from Southern Africa were infected with the variant, Kyodo News reported.

The Netherlands confirmed 13 cases of the Omicron variant. They were among 61 people who tested positive on Friday after arriving on the last two flights to Amsterdam's Schiphol airport before a flight ban.

The Omicron variant has been identified in a citizen from Italy's Campania region, who returned to Milan from Mozambique "some days ago," news agency ANSA reported Sunday. His family of five people also tested positive. His contacts are in isolation as a precautionary measure, said the Campania region said in a statement.

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