The United States, Brazil and Canada responded on Friday to the measure taken by the European Union to suspend flights from certain African countries due to the advance of the new variant of the coronavirus called omicron and identified for the first time in South Africa. These measures were announced the day the World Health Organization warned that the new strain had a large number of mutations, some of which are of concern. In addition, this body warned that, according to the first scientific evidence, it could pose a “greater risk of reinfection” compared to the other variants.
After learning of this information, the White House ordered the restriction of the entry into the United States of flights from eight African countries. “I was briefed on the omicron variant by Chief Medical Advisor Dr. Tony Fauci and members of our COVID Response Team,” President Joe Biden said in a statement. These new restrictions will come into effect next Monday, November 29. “We will always continue to be guided by what science and my medical team advise,” the president stressed.
Biden took the opportunity to remind the public that anyone who is already on the full vaccination schedule will be safer if they decide to get the booster dose, as extra protection during the Christmas period.
Canada has also joined the ban in an attempt to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus variant. Transport Minister Omar Alghabra has flagged the ban on entry of foreign citizens who have traveled to the Southern Africa region in the past 14 days. Also, in a message on his twitter account, reported that Canadian citizens arriving from that region will be required to undergo mandatory coronavirus testing.
The identification of the new strain led the Brazilian health surveillance agency (Anvisa) to recommend this Friday to the government to temporarily suspend the disembarkation of passengers from six African countries where it was registered: South Africa, Botswana, Swaziland, Lesotho, Namibia and Zimbabwe. “It is a variant that has more aggressive characteristics and, obviously, requires immediate action by global health authorities,” justified the director of Anvisa, Antonio Barra Torres, in statements to the press. “We have already sent our technical notes to the Ministries of Health, Infrastructure and Justice so that flights from these countries, located in the south of the African continent, are temporarily blocked from reaching Brazil.”
The role of Anvisa is to make the health recommendations it deems technically relevant, but it is up to the executive power to make the specific decisions. This Friday, the head of the Civil House of Brazil assured that the country would close the border to travelers from the six African countries from next Monday. Before the decision, Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro was skeptical: “What madness is this? The airport has closed, the virus does not enter? It’s already there,” he told supporters who questioned him in Brasilia, adding that a new wave of covid-19 is “unfortunately” underway.
For the moment, the other countries in the region have not reported concrete measures against the new variant of the coronavirus. Meanwhile, South African Health Minister Joe Phaahla has deemed the international reaction to the detection of the new strain “unwarranted and counter-productive”. According to the official, there is no concrete scientific evidence that the new variant is more serious or transmissible (although there are indications that it could be more contagious due to the increase in cases in South Africa the last days). “There is also no evidence that vaccines lost efficacy with this variant,” he added.
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