Renowned epidemiologist, Professor Salim Abdool Karim, says the decision by some nations to close off their borders to southern Africa will not be entirely beneficial, as 11 countries worldwide have already reported the detection of the Omicron variant.
The new COVID-19 variant was detected by South African scientists last week.
Speaking during a media briefing, Karim says the emergence of the variant did not come as a surprise to the health sector.
He says, “The last thing we need is panic and overreaction and certainly what we have seen in knee-jerk reactions is uncalled for. We have dealt with variants before and closing the borders has almost no benefit. As of yesterday, there are already 11 countries reporting cases of Omicron. So trying to isolate SA or southern Africa is not going to help because pretty soon many other countries are going to become avenues of spread of the virus.”
Premature
Phaahla said this reaction goes against the World Health Organisation protocols.
“The reaction by some of the countries in terms of imposing travel bans are completely against the norms and standards by the World Health Organisation. At this stage, we want to assure South Africans that we must just do everything we can to protect ourselves.”
Department of Health briefs media on the new COVID-19 variant:
