S. Africa decries travel bans, says it is being punished for discovering variant

JOHANNESBURG• South Africa, whose citizens have suddenly become persona non grata around the world after the discovery of a new Covid-19 variant in the country, says it is being "punished" and unfairly treated for sounding the alarm.

The government in the country worst hit by the pandemic on the continent, is seething over the stigma it is suffering for being the bearer of bad news.

The decision by many countries around the world to ban flights from parts of Africa following the discovery of the variant, named Omicron, "is akin to punishing South Africa for its advanced genomic sequencing and the ability to detect new variants quicker", the Foreign Affairs Ministry said in a statement.

"Excellent science should be applauded and not punished," it added. "New variants have been detected in other countries. Each of those cases have had no recent links with southern Africa", yet the global "reaction to those countries is starkly different to cases in southern Africa".

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has cautioned against imposing travel restrictions due to Omicron.

South Africa's Health Ministry slammed the travel restrictions as "draconian" and "misdirected" measures which go "against the norms and advice by the WHO".

Said Health Minister Joe Phaahla: "We feel some of the leadership of countries are finding scapegoats to deal with what is a worldwide problem."

Pretoria fears the border closures will hurt "families, the travel and tourism sector, businesses", and that it may deter other countries from reporting discoveries of future variants for fear of being ostracised and punished.

"Sometimes one gets punished for being transparent, and doing things very quick," said Dr Tulio de Oliveira, a leading virologist who announced the discovery of the Omicron variant.

Dr Ahmed Ogwell, deputy director at the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC), added his disgust.

"Stop this unscientific knee-jerk travel bans against #Africa. Use evidence for #covid19pandemic - public health measures, testing, vaccines," he tweeted, adding that travel bans were politics. "Politics won't solve pandemics."

A South African doctor who had raised the alarm over Omicron said yesterday that dozens of her patients suspected of having the new variant had shown only mild symptoms and recovered fully without hospitalisation.

Dr Angelique Coetzee, chair of the South African Medical Association, told Agence France-Presse that she had seen around 30 patients over the past 10 days who tested positive for Covid-19 but had unfamiliar symptoms.

"What brought them to the surgery was this extreme tiredness," she said, speaking from Pretoria, where she practises. She noted this was unusual for younger patients.

Most were men under 40. Just under half were vaccinated. They also had mild muscle aches, a "scratchy throat" and dry cough, she said. Only a few had a slightly high temperature. These very mild symptoms were different from those seen with other variants, which caused more severe symptoms.

Dr Coetzee alerted health officials to a "clinical picture that doesn't fit Delta" - South Africa's dominant variant - on Nov 18, when she received the first seven of her 30-odd patients.

"We are not saying that there will not be severe disease coming forward," she said. But "for now, even the patients that we have seen who are not vaccinated have mild symptoms".

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE