Furious South African President slams Britain for leading western world in ‘unjustified, unscientific’ travel ban due to omicron variant – but admits his country is on the verge of a fourth wave
- Cyril Ramaphosa said SA authorities would not be considering lockdown
- He slammed Britain for kicking off travel restrictions from Western nations
South African authorities are furious that Britain banned flights from the southern African countries – calling the measures ‘unjustified’ and ‘unscientific’.
Britain introduced the measures in response to the emergence of the Omicron variant of Covid in South Africa this week.
Scientists have so far only detected the new Omicron variant in relatively small numbers, mainly in South Africa but also in Botswana, Hong Kong and Israel.
But they are concerned by its high number of mutations which raised concerns that it could be more vaccine-resistant and transmissible.
South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa said authorities would not be considering economic lockdown restrictions for the time being
South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa said authorities would not be considering economic lockdown restrictions for the time being
He then slammed rich Western countries for their knee-jerk imposition of travel bans after hearing about the new variant.
Ramaphosa said today: ‘This is a clear and completely unjustified departure from the commitment that many of these countries made at the meeting of G20 countries in Rome last month’.
‘The prohibition of travel is not informed by science, nor will it be effective in preventing the spread of this variant.
‘The only thing [it] will do is to further damage the economies of the affected countries and undermine their ability to respond to the pandemic.’
The UK has imposed new restrictions on arriving travelers from South Africa and other countries in the southern Africa region
Ramaphosa also said that mandatory Covid vaccination is being considered by the government after conceding that his country was entering a fourth wave of the pandemic.
He said: ‘If cases continue to climb, we can expect to enter a fourth wave of infections within the next few weeks, if not sooner.’
The Omicron variant is thought to be more transmissable than the currently-dominant Delta variant.
It was first identified in South Africa but has been found in Hong Kong, Belgium and the Netherlands in the days since the World Health Organisation designated it a ‘variant of concern’.