UN, US, SWITZERLAND : United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said on Wednesday that travel restrictions imposed over COVID-19 that isolate any one country or region as “not only deeply unfair and punitive – they are ineffective.”
Speaking to reporters in New York, Guterres said the only way to reduce the risk of transmission while allowing for travel and economic engagement was to repeatedly test travelers, “together with other appropriate and truly effective measures.”
“We have the instruments to have safe travel. Let’s use those instruments to avoid this kind of, allow me to say, travel apartheid, which I think is unacceptable,” Guterres said. Omicron was first identified in southern Africa and many countries, including the United States and Britain, have announced travel curbs and other restrictions on the region. Africa has some of the lowest COVID-19 vaccination rates worldwide due to a lack of access to doses. Guterres has long warned about the dangers of vaccine inequality around the world and that low immunization rates are “a breeding ground for variants.”
“These travel bans are not justified,” said African Union Commission Chair Moussa Faki Mahamat at the joint news conference with Guterres after the annual meeting between the United Nations and the African Union.
Meanwhile, the United States has announced its first confirmed case of Omicron, the new variant of Covid, in a traveller who has recently returned from South Africa. This is the first known case of the new variant, first identified by South African scientists, in the US, as several reports now suggest that the variant was present in Europe before South Africa reported the first case. Much about the new variant is not known yet, but its emergence has created fresh apprehension across the world with most of the countries putting travel restrictions.
Meanwhile, The World Health Organisation (WHO) on Wednesday said it was expecting the number of countries reporting the new Omicron variant of coronavirus to grow. The world health body also sounded a word of caution against the “toxic mix” of low vaccination coverage and low testing, calling it a “recipe” for breeding of new COVID-19 variants. “The emergence of the Omicron variant has understandably captured global attention. At least 23 countries from five of six WHO regions have now reported cases of Omicron, and we expect that number to grow,” WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesu said.
"Globally, we have a toxic mix of low vaccine coverage and very low testing -- a recipe for breeding and amplifying variants," he said, while addressing a press conference.
Meanwhile, the Omicron variant has been detected in five out of nine South African Provinces and accounted for 74% of the virus genomes sequenced in November, data from the country's National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) showed on Wednesday.
The variant, which has raised global fears of a surge in infections, was first detected in southern Africa last week. The NICD said the earliest detection of the variant in South Africa was on November 8 in Gauteng, the most populous province. It said that until the end of October, the Delta variant accounted for most of the genomes sequenced, but in November Omicron had overtaken Delta.
Colour-coded graphs showed that Omicron had now appeared in the provinces of Gauteng, Eastern Cape, KwaZulu Natal, Mpumalanga and Western Cape.
Meanwhile, World Health Organization member states agreed on Wednesday to start building a new international accord on how to handle future pandemics and ensure there can be no repeat of COVID-19. At a special meeting in Geneva, the 194 WHO member states unanimously adopted a resolution launching the negotiating and drafting process for a new international instrument on pandemic prevention, preparedness and response. The process will present its final outcome in 2024.
- THE INDIAN EXPRESS, NDTV
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