EU lifts COVID-19 travel ban on flights from Southern Africa imposed due to Omicron

Nearly a month after the European Union restricted flights following the emergence of the new COVID-19 variant, Omicron, it has ended travel restrictions on flights landing from South Africa on January 11. According to the announcement made by the EU on Tuesday, the 27 member states agreed to lift the emergency suspension to resume air travel with southern Africa which was imposed due to Omicron variant of the Coronavirus. However, it directed the travellers from South Africa and adjoining countries to check up on their health before boarding the flights. "Travellers from South Africa and neighbouring countries will still be subject to the other health measures on vaccinations and recovery from the disease that other third-nation visitors also face," EU said in the latest notification. 

The announcement came few days after South Africa announced that the country has passed the COVID wave as it reported nearly very few cases as compared to cases registered in December last year. The South Africa cabinet noted that the new variant was highly transmissible but added the rate of hospitalisation was relatively low as compared to earlier COVID variants. The health ministry informed that the cases of all kinds of COVID variants dropped 29.7% compared to Christmas week. "It was a short wave and the good news is that it was not very severe in terms of hospitalisations and deaths. It is not unexpected in epidemiology that a very steep increase, like what we saw in November, is followed by a steep decrease," Marta Nunes, senior researcher at the Vaccines and Infectious Diseases Analytics department of the University of Witwatersrand, told AP.

US lifted COVID-19 travel ban on Christmas eve

Notably, in the third week of November, scientists in South Africa identified the new COVID variant called B.1.1529, or Omicron. The announcement prompted several countries to either restrict international travel or tighten their grip by formulating the popular "TTT" strategy-- Tracing, Testing and Treatment. Despite the regular updates from the global health agencies, the situation is not clear whether the new variant is more lethal than earlier variants or whether the vaccine affects the Omicron variant or not. Earlier on the eve of Christmas, the United States also announced to lift restrictions amid an abrupt surge in Omicron cases. Surprisingly, the US  announcement came merely two days after the CDC said Omicron accounts for 73.2% of new cases in the country. 

With inputs from AP

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