Omicron: Over 40 nations impose travel bans as world scrambles to tackle new COVID variant
Following the discovery of the Omicron variant of COVID-19, several nations have suspended flights from African nations, reimposing emergency measures.
Just when the world was beginning to approach normalcy after over a year of COVID pandemic, the new Omicron variant has toppled the ray of hope. More than 40 nations have swiftly moved to impose travel bans as different countries took different approaches to prevent the spread of the new COVID variant, which the World Health Organization (WHO) has said is a “highly-mutated” variant of SARS-CoV-2.
South African scientists had alerted WHO regarding the new B.1.1.529 variant on 24 November and the UN health agency named it 'Omicorn' on November 26 and called it as a "variant of concern". A lot of nations are imposing restrictions, with governments changing their regulations at a moment's notice. African nations have come on the radar, with the rest of the world suspending flights or closing its borders to the selected 7 to 9 nations on the continent.
South Africa had even denounced the travel bans that countries imposed and said that it was being "punished" for detecting the Omicron strain. Even WHO called on nations to not "penalise" the country for detecting the new strain which drove a steep rise in COVID cases. It has to be noted that the Omicron strain has already been detected in over 10 countries.
Here’s a list of countries that have imposed travel restrictions amid Omicorn spread
- India
- The United States
- The UK
- Canada
- China
- France
- Germany
- Greece
- Japan
- Russia
- Belgium
- Singapore
- Bangladesh
- Sri Lanka
- Austria
- Saudi Arabia
- Netherlands
- Philippines
- Spain
- Thailand
- Turkey
- United Arab Emirates (UAE)
- Angola
- Argentina
- Australia
- Brazil
- Denmark
- Egypt
- Fiji
- Indonesia
- Ireland
- Israel
- Italy
- Kuwait
- Maldives
- Malta
- Pakistan
- Morocco
- New Zealand
- Oman
- Rwanda
World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has called for a 'new accord on pandemics' in the wake of the 'highly-mutated Omicron variant' of coronavirus. In the opening remarks to the special session of WHO's decision-making body - World Health Assembly (WHA), Tedros on Monday noted that the COVID pandemic has exposed and even exacerbated fundamental weaknesses in the global architecture for pandemic preparedness and response.
“The best way we can address them is with a legally binding agreement between nations; an accord forged from the recognition that we have no future but a common future,” he said.
(IMAGE: AP/Pixabay)
Published By : Aanchal Nigam
Published On: 30 November 2021 at 11:54 IST