South Africa on Saturday said it was being "punished" for its advanced ability to detect new COVID-19 variants early, as several countries imposed travel ban on it due to the new potentially highly-transmissible Omicron variant, first detected here. The latest round of travel bans is "akin to punishing South Africa for its advanced genomic sequencing and the ability to detect new variants quicker. Foreign minister Naledi Pandor also slammed the UK and other countries for their move to impose travel ban on South Africa. Earlier, Health Minister Joe Phaahla has termed the travel bans on South Africa as “draconian" and “misdirected". The new COVID-19 variant B.1.1.529, first detected in South Africa this week, was on Friday designated as a “Variant of Concern" by the World Health Organisation (WHO), which named it “Omicron".

Source: Mint November 28, 2021 11:51 UTC