Omicron: WHO chief says ‘deeply disappointed’ at curbs on flights from southern Africa

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus also thanked South Africa and Botswana for not hiding cases of this latest Covid-19 variant.

World Health Organization (WHO) director general, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, on Monday expressed disappointment at travel restrictions being imposed on flights from southern Africa, where the latest Covid-19 variant, Omicron, was first detected. He also thanked South Africa and Botswana, which reported the first cases of Omicron, for not hiding this new variant.

“I thank South Africa and Botswana for rapidly detecting, sequencing and reporting this new Covid-19 variant. It is deeply disappointing to me that some countries continue to block direct flights from southern Africa due to the Omicron variant,” WHO quoted Ghebreyesus as saying at the ‘Partnership for African Vaccine manufacturing-From Aspiration To Action’ event.

In making this observation, the WHO chief reiterated his remarks from tweets on Sunday, in which he shared his ‘disappointment’ with the imposition of curbs and also expressed respect to the African countries for their ‘transparency and sharing’ with respect to the information related to the Omicron variant, which is also denoted as B.1.1.529, and has been classified as a Variant of Concern (VoC).

The discovery of B.1.1.529 came at a time when several countries were witnessing a spike in Covid-19 cases. This has led to countries, including India, announcing measures for air passengers arriving from southern Africa. India is also among the nations, more than 30 in number, where passengers have tested positive for Omicron.

This also led to India deferring resumption of regular international commercial passenger flights, which was scheduled for December 15. International flight operations were suspended in March last year, when the first nationwide lockdown was announced.