The African Union on Tuesday condemned the travel ban imposed on South Africa and its neighbours for disclosing the presence of omicron, saying that instituting the measure could deter other countries from reporting on any mutant variant that might arise in the future.
The Ethiopia-based continental body said in a statement that the travel ban must be rescinded because it made no sense when omicron was present in dozens of other countries but those states were not subject to the same travel restrictions as southern Africa.
“Penalising member states for ensuring timely and transparent data dissemination in accordance with international health regulations acts as a disincentive for information sharing in the future — potentially posing a threat to health security on the continent and globally,” the AU said.
Instead, the union called for more emphasis to be put on the distribution of Covid-19 vaccines on the continent to those in need like the current victims of the travel ban.
“Equitable access to vaccines is key to immunise populations, control transmission of the virus and prevent the emergence of new variants,” the continental body said.
It added: “International efforts should accordingly focus on increasing vaccination coverage on the continent.”
South Africa’s National Institute of Communicable Diseases (NICD) in November was the first body to announce the mutant variant before the UN World Health Organisation declared it a variant of concern, and named it as omicron.
This led to Western countries across the globe acting swiftly.
Britain and the United States led them in closing their borders to travellers from South Africa and the region from entering their countries immediately.
NM/as/APA