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Updated December 6th, 2021 at 09:42 IST

Omicron travel bans discriminatory says South African envoy; 'punished for alerting world'

South Africa's high commissioner to Australia, stated the prohibition needs to be repealed since vast numbers of Omicron cases were discovered around the globe

Reported by: Anwesha Majumdar
omicron
Image: @Brand_SA/ Twitter/ AP/ Pixabay/ Representative image | Image:self
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As travel restrictions were established in an attempt to slow the transmission of the novel Omicron strain of COVID-19, South Africa's senior diplomat to Australia blamed the federal administration for discriminating against African countries. Marthinus van Schalkwyk, South Africa's high commissioner to Australia, stated that the prohibition needs to be repealed since vast numbers of Omicron instances had been discovered around the globe, not only in Africa, as per the Guardian. 

Following the identification of the variation, flights from nine African nations were halted last week. Schalkwyk claimed that the issue should be examined in terms of overall case numbers, not just those associated with the Omicron variety. He went on to argue that South Africa has yet recorded fewer cases than nations like the United Kingdom, where travel was less controlled, as per the ABC news website. 

'It is discrimination because the only difference is these countries are on the African continent'

 "We believe it is discrimination because the only difference is these countries are on the African continent (and) the others are not," ABC news reported by quoting Schalkwyk’s statement. Furthermore, Australian nationals and permanent residents could still travel to Australia through other third countries, but they will be subjected to an obligatory quarantine period of two weeks upon arrival. While visitors from the region have been barred from entering. 

Meanwhile, in the last four days, the number of COVID-19 cases has approximately quadrupled, placing strain on the country's healthcare system. In addition to this, Schalkwyk argued that South Africa had performed as a decent global citizen by notifying the rest of the world about the new version as soon as possible.  

Schalkwyk claimed, “when China was alleged to not be transparent, Australia led the campaign and they actually laid down the gold standard of what transparency means,” whereas, South Africa has behaved completely in accordance with that gold standard, and yet, the first reaction was a travel restriction. As per the ABC news, he added, “So, yes, we are convinced it would not have happened if South Africa was a European country." 

The Omicron variety has been found in 38 nations, according to the World Health Organization. When dealing with the new mutated variant of COVID-19, the high commissioner emphasised that the travel ban should never be the first tool for a country to combat the disease, calling it a "knee-jerk reaction." 

Furthermore, in New South Wales, 15 instances of Omicron have been discovered, with two instances in the Australian Capital Territory and one in the Northern Territory. While the administration has already been sceptical of Omicron's entrance, finance minister of Australia, Simon Birmingham said the procedures were essential to analyse the situation, the Guardian reported. 

(Image: @Brand_SA/ Twitter/ AP/ Pixabay/ Representative image)

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Published December 6th, 2021 at 09:42 IST

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