Rwanda flag carrier ‘RwandAir’ on Sunday announced the suspension of all flights to to South Africa and Zimbabwe over the Omicron outbreak.
The airline, together with health authorities in Rwanda, is monitoring the current challenges posed by the new coronavirus variant, it said.
The World Health Organization announced Friday that its Technical Advisory Group on SARS-CoV-2 Virus Evolution (TAG-VE) assessed the SARS-CoV-2 variant: B.1.1.529. and found that this variant has a large number of mutations, some of which are concerning.
It said that “preliminary evidence suggests an increased risk of reinfection with this variant, as compared to other VOCs. The number of cases of this variant appears to be increasing in almost all provinces in South Africa.”
The new variant has been named Omicron.
With 59 confirmed cases of the new variant identified in South Africa, Hong Kong and Botswana, as of November 26, there were no confirmed cases in Rwanda.
CU/abj/APA