Countries were racing to contain the Omicron coronavirus variant by restricting travel and imposing new quarantine measures as new cases were detected around the world on Sunday.
A third case was identified in the UK and dozens more were being treated as suspected cases, people familiar with the matter told the Financial Times. The government mandated mask-wearing for shops and public transport in England, and people entering the UK will be required to take a PCR test within two days of their arrival and self-isolate until they receive a negative result.
The US, EU, UK, Australia, Saudi Arabia and South Korea all limited travel or ordered quarantines on individuals travelling to and from southern Africa while others, such as Singapore and India, signalled they were reviewing restrictions. Switzerland has also restricted travel to non-African nations where cases have been detected.
Israel became the first country to close its borders to foreigners after one case was confirmed and several more were suspected. Returning travellers will be forced to quarantine, monitored by the army and domestic intelligence agency Shin Bet.
“Everyone is tired of life in the shadow of the coronavirus,” said Israeli prime minister Naftali Bennett. “I hear what people are saying to me: ‘We have just emerged from the Delta strain and now a new strain has arrived?’ It is not easy but it is reality.”
Cyril Ramaphosa, South Africa’s president, called on the countries imposing controls to immediately end “completely unjustified” travel bans imposed on southern Africa over the Omicron variant, which was first detected in Botswana and South Africa.
“There is no scientific justification whatsoever for keeping these restrictions in place”, and South Africa was “deeply disappointed” by the actions of the UK and others, Ramaphosa said in a televised statement on Sunday.
The restrictions “unfairly discriminate” against southern Africa when the emergence of Omicron should be a wake-up call to end inequality over African access to vaccinations compared to rich countries, he said.
Despite the rise in cases and a flagging mass vaccination campaign, South Africa would not impose additional restrictions over Omicron and was still reviewing whether to bring in public vaccination mandates, the president said, attributing the identification of the variant to “the excellent work of our scientists”.
The country’s business leaders say travel bans will throttle Africa’s most industrialised economy.
