Kenya will make a decision today on whether to join the US and EU member States in imposing new travel restrictions on South Africa and seven other southern African countries due to a highly infectious new coronavirus strain.
Director-General for Health Patrick Amoth said Kenya’s reaction to the new Covid-19 variant, which spread rapidly and can be transmitted between fully vaccinated people, will be known today.
South Africa has protested against the flight bans, terming them "unjustified" and “punishment” for its scientific transparency.
Kenya’s reaction comes days after President Uhuru Kenyatta made an official visit to South Africa with the aim of boosting trade between the two countries, culminating in the inking of eight bilateral deals.
The deals offer local businesses more opportunities to increase trading and swing trade fortunes that have for years been in favour of South Africa.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) earlier declared the new variant to be "of concern", naming it Omicron amid growing international panic about the strain, which scientists believe is more transmissible and has an increased risk of reinfection.
US officials said flights from South Africa, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Namibia, Lesotho, Eswatini, Mozambique and Malawi will be blocked, mirroring earlier moves taken by the EU and the UK. The ban comes into effect today.
"We will issue a direction on the matter come Monday," said Dr Amoth in a phone interview with the Business Daily.
There are tens of direct flights monthly from South Africa to Kenya, underlying the importance of the route to carriers like Kenya Airways.
The Omicron variant was first reported to the WHO from South Africa on November 24 and has since been identified in other countries.
Scientists say they have much to learn about the virus’s new mutations and the WHO has said it will take a few weeks to understand the impact of the new variant, as experts work to determine how transmissible it is.The WHO on Friday said preliminary evidence suggested the new variant carried a higher risk of reinfection than other variants.Scientists have said it is the most heavily mutated version yet, which means Covid vaccines, which were designed using the original strain from Wuhan, China, may not be as effective.South Africa, the country worst hit on the continent by the pandemic with almost 90,000 official deaths, has more laboratories and scientists tracking mutations than any other African nation.This makes it more likely that it will discover variants of concern, but it has also […]
