Europe rushes to ban travel from southern Africa over new COVID-19 strain
Europe rushed to ban travel from southern Africa to slow the spread of a new Covid-19 strain that scientists fear could torpedo efforts to beat the pandemic, AFP reported.
The World Health Organization said it could take several weeks to understand the variant and cautioned against imposing new travel curbs.
“WHO recommends that countries continue to apply a risk based and a scientific approach when implementing travel measures… implementing travel measures is being cautioned against,” said spokesman Christian Lindmeier.
Europe is already struggling to cope with a fresh coronavirus surge, and returning restrictions have sparked rioting in some countries.
Austria, the Czech Republic, Germany, Italy and the Netherlands on Friday joined Britain in announcing travel bans.
The bans all included South Africa, and in many cases also some or all of the following: Botswana, Eswatini (Swaziland), Lesotho, Namibia, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
The EU commission said it would swiftly coordinate joint action among the bloc’s 27-member states.
“The last thing we need now is an introduced new variant that causes even more problems,” Germany’s acting health minister Jens Spahn said as his country battled a ferocious fourth wave of the pandemic.
The rush to close off southern Africa comes a day after scientists in Johannesburg said they had detected the new strain with at least 10 mutations, compared with two for Delta.
The variant was of “serious concern” and had been blamed for a surge in infection numbers, authorities in South Africa said on Thursday.
It had also been detected in Botswana and Hong Kong among travelers from South Africa.
Israel said it had quarantined three people, all vaccinated, identified with the new variant, with one having just returned from Malawi.
The WHO said it was “closely monitoring” the variant and weighing whether it should be designated a variant of “interest” or of “concern.”
It was also up to WHO to decide whether to give the strain a name taken from the Greek alphabet, as for previous major variants such as Delta.
Spooked by the variant, the European markets fell over 3 percent, with airline shares especially hit.
Tokyo closed down 2.53 percent, after having lost more than three percent in the middle of the day.
The new variant erupted onto the scene as European countries announced new measures to face the ravages of the Delta variant that is again bringing a critical shortage of beds in hospitals.