ignis: Buhari is not yet aware of the existence of Omicron - the new COVID-19 variant. I pray it won't be too late and rapidly spread in Nigeria before he becomes aware.
I tell people had it been covid originated from Africa. The whole world will ban Africa forever and the stigma will remain forever. Mumu African leaders a**slickers
From the News, the new variant have been discovered in Belgium and Israel too, but guess what? Only South Africa and other African countries are been placed on Red/travel ban list.
Meanwhile, African Leaders will be hesitant to place all this western/middle East countries on travel ban list, even when they have new variants of the virus.
As a matter of fact, if this African leaders have acted quickly and placed all Non - African countries on Travel Ban list, perhaps, the virus wouldn't have spread to Africa to start with. But they all foolishly left their borders open, allowing free entry of COVID.
South African scientists simply identified a new variant and were upfront about it, which is more than i can say about other countries which also have new variants but either dont want to disclose or haven't even identified he new variants. Kudos to our scientists.
There's nothing "godforsaken" with a country that remains a beacon of light in an otherwise dark continent.
TMKsouth: Following the discovery of a new, highly mutated Covid-19 variant, B.1.1.529, international travel bans are being imposed on South Africa.
News of the variant - now named Omicron by the World Health Organisation - which has now been detected in Belgium, Botswana, Hong Kong, Israel and South Africa, has rattled the prospect of international travel.
The United States is the latest country to announce it will restrict travel for non-U.S. citizens from South Africa and seven other countries starting Monday, according to senior Biden administration officials.
In addition to South Africa, other countries included in the new restrictions are Botswana, Zimbabwe, Namibia, Lesotho, Eswatini, Mozambique and Malawi.
UK
The United Kingdom was the first to react, announcing that South African travellers would be denied entry from midday Friday.
Non-UK and Irish residents who have been in South Africa, Botswana, Lesotho, Eswatini, Zimbabwe or Namibia in the previous 10 days will be denied entry.
South Africa has been placed back on the UK’s restrictive red list, which enforces strict quarantine requirements for returning residents. UK and Irish residents arriving from South Africa over the weekend will be required to self-isolate at home for 10 days and take two post-arrival PCR tests.
From 04:00 on Sunday, passengers arriving in the UK will need to quarantine in a state-managed hotel, at their own cost. This is the same red list requirement which decimated South Africa’s tourism sector.
South Africa was relegated to the UK’s red list until October. South Africa’s short-lived delisting held promise for the country’s ailing tourism sector but now, with the summer season approaching, being back on the red list comes at the worst possible time.
The Association of Southern African Travel Agents (ASATA) and international relations and cooperation (DIRCO) have both criticised the UK’s “knee-jerk” reaction.
European Union
France and the Netherlands are the latest European nations to ban South African travellers.
French Health Minister Olivier Véran announced on Friday afternoon that flights from South Africa and neighbouring countries would be suspended for 48 hours, according to France24.
“Although no cases [of B.1.1.529 infection] have been detected on French territory, the principle of maximum caution must apply,” noted a statement from the French Prime Minister’s office.
Air France has not yet issued a statement concerning flight cancellations.
The Netherlands has imposed a ban on all flights departing from Southern Africa, which came into immediate effect on Friday.
“As of today 12:00 noon, there is a no-fly zone for countries in Southern Africa,” Health minister Hugo de Jonge said in a statement on social media.
“These countries are classified as very high-risk areas. This means a quarantine and double testing obligation for travellers [returning] from these countries.”
Germany has moved to declare South Africa a virus variant area on Friday, according to Reuters. The travel ban is expected to come into effect on Friday night.
This classification as a virus variant area means that travellers from South Africa will be prohibited from entering Germany. Airlines will only be able to fly Germans to Germany from South Africa. These returning citizens, even if vaccinated, will be required to quarantine for 14 days.
Italy and Austria are examples of countries to which travel for South African passport holders was already prohibited. Residents and nationals returning from South Africa will be allowed to enter Italy and Austria but will be forced to quarantine for 10 days, even if they are considered fully vaccinated.
Africa
Travellers from South Africa, as well as Botswana, Eswatini, Lesotho, Mozambique, Namibia, and Zimbabwe, will not be permitted into the Seychelles from Saturday, the Seychelles News Agency reported.
The archipelago's government had closed its borders to such travellers "until further notice", it said.
Residents who had been in South Africa will be required to self-isolate, and take a PCR test.
The island group opened its borders to South Africans in mid September, after a lengthy previous ban.
Asia
Japan announced on Friday that it would move to tighten its borders following news of the B.1.1.529 variant. Exact details of this ban and when it will come into effect are, at this stage, still unknown.
Singapore announced that it too would restrict visitors with a travel history to Botswana, Eswatini, Lesotho, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, or Zimbabwe within the last 14 days. This ban, which comes into effect at midnight on Saturday, includes transiting through Singapore.
Singapore citizens and permanent residents will be allowed to return from South Africa, now classified as a Category IV country, but will be required to spend 10 days in quarantine.
Middle East
Israel,which has restricted travel to and from South Africa at various points throughout the pandemic, announced new flight restrictions following the briefing on Omicron.
Similar to the UK, only returning Israeli residents and nationals will be allowed to return home from South Africa. They will need to quarantine for a week and take two post-arrival PCR tests.
Turkey and the UAE have also restricted SA travellers.
The variant is all lies....this variant was discovered in July 2021 but since they need to inject more poison into the sheeple they have hyped this like before.....meanwhile the people of Botswana are wondering why the world is having headache over a variant that has no effect on them.
Meanwhile December 2020 they hyped the eta variant from Nigeria. They said it was the most deadly until people pointed out that Nigeria has no problem with covid
From the News, the new variant have been discovered in Belgium and Israel too, but guess what? Only South Africa and other African countries are been placed on Red/travel ban list.
Meanwhile, African Leaders will be hesitant to place all this western/middle East countries on travel ban list, even when they have new variants of the virus.
As a matter of fact, if this African leaders have acted quickly and placed all Non - African countries on Travel Ban list, perhaps, the virus wouldn't have spread to Africa to start with. But they all foolishly left their borders open, allowing free entry of COVID.
yemmywesey: Wetin be omicron again, Make they find cure , nah vaccine them dey find up and down. This new world order just started, more and more to unfold.
Which new world order is it today the word is experiencing a pandemic use your head.
As far as all the variants no infect these three men One man for aso rock, one Mkpurumiri baron from bourdillion, and one almajiris attorney general of arewa federation. Therefore the pandemic nah wash.
IronGalaxy: South African scientists simply identified a new variant and were upfront about it, which is more than i can say about other countries which also have new variants but either dont want to disclose or haven't even identified he new variants. Kudos to our scientists.
There's nothing "godforsaken" with a country that remains a beacon of light in an otherwise dark continent.
"Backbone of darkness" my friend South Africa is a useless xenophobic country. No matter how you decorate a monkey, a monkey is still a monkey
Richy4: To bad for South Africa.. Assuming they sat down and figure out how the trend of the virus was going and what to do to prevent transmission before opening their mouth wide to announce to the whole world that they got stuffs like that that kills instantly... How do you expect tourist to come if u have things that will kill them..
Every reasonable country will never announce a thing like that considering what it will do to the economy... China that brought the virus to the world, What they have been announcing to people that cares to listen was how their economy was booming and surpassing that of the US
Even Niger Republic might cancel their flight going to South Africa
reason why South Africa won't have such evil intention as China. You think the world in its global formation will leave you to die of a plague when you do your part to prevent others from getting it? Ebola virus case should tell you the world is more of a brothers' keeper than what you think. China played the world and here we are today. SA did the right thing.
But naija government is still sleeping in bike..... Soon you will hear that the new variant is already here... One Zimbabwean business man who just got back from a trip to sa a week ago flew into Nigeria through Kenya after a brief stop in Ghana...... Na then them go begin place travel ban.
TMKsouth: Following the discovery of a new, highly mutated Covid-19 variant, B.1.1.529, international travel bans are being imposed on South Africa.
News of the variant - now named Omicron by the World Health Organisation - which has now been detected in Belgium, Botswana, Hong Kong, Israel and South Africa, has rattled the prospect of international travel.
The United States is the latest country to announce it will restrict travel for non-U.S. citizens from South Africa and seven other countries starting Monday, according to senior Biden administration officials.
In addition to South Africa, other countries included in the new restrictions are Botswana, Zimbabwe, Namibia, Lesotho, Eswatini, Mozambique and Malawi.
UK
The United Kingdom was the first to react, announcing that South African travellers would be denied entry from midday Friday.
Non-UK and Irish residents who have been in South Africa, Botswana, Lesotho, Eswatini, Zimbabwe or Namibia in the previous 10 days will be denied entry.
South Africa has been placed back on the UK’s restrictive red list, which enforces strict quarantine requirements for returning residents. UK and Irish residents arriving from South Africa over the weekend will be required to self-isolate at home for 10 days and take two post-arrival PCR tests.
From 04:00 on Sunday, passengers arriving in the UK will need to quarantine in a state-managed hotel, at their own cost. This is the same red list requirement which decimated South Africa’s tourism sector.
South Africa was relegated to the UK’s red list until October. South Africa’s short-lived delisting held promise for the country’s ailing tourism sector but now, with the summer season approaching, being back on the red list comes at the worst possible time.
The Association of Southern African Travel Agents (ASATA) and international relations and cooperation (DIRCO) have both criticised the UK’s “knee-jerk” reaction.
European Union
France and the Netherlands are the latest European nations to ban South African travellers.
French Health Minister Olivier Véran announced on Friday afternoon that flights from South Africa and neighbouring countries would be suspended for 48 hours, according to France24.
“Although no cases [of B.1.1.529 infection] have been detected on French territory, the principle of maximum caution must apply,” noted a statement from the French Prime Minister’s office.
Air France has not yet issued a statement concerning flight cancellations.
The Netherlands has imposed a ban on all flights departing from Southern Africa, which came into immediate effect on Friday.
“As of today 12:00 noon, there is a no-fly zone for countries in Southern Africa,” Health minister Hugo de Jonge said in a statement on social media.
“These countries are classified as very high-risk areas. This means a quarantine and double testing obligation for travellers [returning] from these countries.”
Germany has moved to declare South Africa a virus variant area on Friday, according to Reuters. The travel ban is expected to come into effect on Friday night.
This classification as a virus variant area means that travellers from South Africa will be prohibited from entering Germany. Airlines will only be able to fly Germans to Germany from South Africa. These returning citizens, even if vaccinated, will be required to quarantine for 14 days.
Italy and Austria are examples of countries to which travel for South African passport holders was already prohibited. Residents and nationals returning from South Africa will be allowed to enter Italy and Austria but will be forced to quarantine for 10 days, even if they are considered fully vaccinated.
Africa
Travellers from South Africa, as well as Botswana, Eswatini, Lesotho, Mozambique, Namibia, and Zimbabwe, will not be permitted into the Seychelles from Saturday, the Seychelles News Agency reported.
The archipelago's government had closed its borders to such travellers "until further notice", it said.
Residents who had been in South Africa will be required to self-isolate, and take a PCR test.
The island group opened its borders to South Africans in mid September, after a lengthy previous ban.
Asia
Japan announced on Friday that it would move to tighten its borders following news of the B.1.1.529 variant. Exact details of this ban and when it will come into effect are, at this stage, still unknown.
Singapore announced that it too would restrict visitors with a travel history to Botswana, Eswatini, Lesotho, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, or Zimbabwe within the last 14 days. This ban, which comes into effect at midnight on Saturday, includes transiting through Singapore.
Singapore citizens and permanent residents will be allowed to return from South Africa, now classified as a Category IV country, but will be required to spend 10 days in quarantine.
Middle East
Israel,which has restricted travel to and from South Africa at various points throughout the pandemic, announced new flight restrictions following the briefing on Omicron.
Similar to the UK, only returning Israeli residents and nationals will be allowed to return home from South Africa. They will need to quarantine for a week and take two post-arrival PCR tests.
Turkey and the UAE have also restricted SA travellers.
If Nigeria does not follow suit and do so vociferously then it will get here and we will be shut out sooner than later. So sorry for those whose business takes them around the world.
NIGERIA leaders are always at the last when it comes to quick decision making.
The South African people might bring this disease into Nigeria if President Buhari is not PRO-ACTIVE in putting a visa ban on travels from south africa to Nigeria.
Originalsly: Viruses mutate all the time. Listen carefully.... said other mutations were of even more concern ... lasted for around two weeks but caused no infection. What does that tell us?.... isn't it that our immune system neutralized it? So why the fuss about this other variant of concern? Why attach a name to this particular one? Is it because this one will be the chosen one to justify a new round of vaccines and protocols? Nigerians have been ignoring all COVID-19 protocols..... and are unvaccinated. Aren't we supposed to be one of the most affected nations? Why are we one of the least? We should continue to do what we are doing..... nothing.
Honestly, the Nigerian situation baffles me...South Africa had one of the worst lockdoen ever, but the thing killed more than even HIV in many years in SA
Honestly, the Nigerian situation baffles me...South Africa had one of the worst lockdoen ever, but the thing killed more than even HIV in many years in SA
is it today the word is experiencing a pandemic use your head.
my friend South Africa is a useless xenophobic country. No matter how you decorate a monkey, a monkey is still a monkey
