Covid live: WHO names new variant ‘Omicron’; EU states agree on need to halt travel to southern Africa | World news
The South African health minister Joe Phaahla has said preliminary studies suggest the new B.1.1.529 variant may be more transmissible, but the decision of other countries to impose travel restrictions is “unjustified”.
Scientists have so far only detected the B.1.1.529 variant in relatively small numbers, mainly in South Africa but also in Botswana, Hong Kong, Israel and Belgium, but they are concerned by its high number of mutations which could make it vaccine-resistant and more transmissible.
Phaahla told a media briefing that South Africa was acting with transparency, and that travel bans introduced by a number of countries against southern African nations are “completely against the norms and standards” of the World Health Organisation.
“We want to reassure South Africans that some of the reaction has been unjustified,” Phaahla says.
The foreign ministry said South Africa would speak to Britain to try to get it to reconsider its ban, and the president Cyril Ramaphosa will convene an advisory council on Sunday to consider evidence on the variant.
“Our immediate concern is the damage that this decision will cause to both the tourism industries and businesses of both countries,” Foreign Minister Naledi Pandor said in a statement.
The rand currency slumped as much as 2% against the dollar and South African hospitality stocks plummeted, as investors were unnerved.
Phaahla added that foreign scientists have not presented any evidence that the new variant has the capacity to evade protection offered by vaccines, though he accepts that early signs suggest it is more transmissible.
He said the UK had imposed travel restrictions on his country without prior discussion. Britain banned flights from South Africa, Botswana, Lesotho, Eswatini, Zimbabwe and Namibia after the detection of the new variant in South Africa.
European Union states have also agreed to suspend travel to southern Africa after the detection of the variant, the presidency of the EU said on Friday.
However, Salim Abdool Karim, one of South Africa’s top epidemiologists, said of the new variant that it was “important to deal with it globally,” pointing out that the Delta variant had spread to 53 countries within three weeks of it being identified.
“So it doesn’t really help to close borders… We’ve got to find solutions to this variant together. And part of that is not to overreact,” he told Reuters, characterising the British travel ban as a “panic reaction” that was understandable.
The WHO was due to decide on Friday whether to designate the variant as being “of concern,” a label only given to four variants to date. But it could take weeks for scientists to fully understand the impact of the variant’s mutations.
Phaahla called on South Africans to come forward and receive the vaccine, which he said remained a “major bulwark” against infection and severe illness.
Related: Get vaccinated now, South Africans told amid new variant fears
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