The UK announced on Thursday that all flights to and from South Africa and five neighbouring countries would be banned from Friday noon following an announcement that the new Omicron variant of COVID-19 had been detected in South Africa. According to the government's decision on Friday, airlines will be allowed to operate 50 per cent of their pre-COVID scheduled passenger flights between India and South Africa, Hong Kong and Botswana from December 15. India does not have an air bubble arrangement -- which allows special passenger flights between two countries amid COVID-related restrictions -- with South Africa, Hong Kong and Botswana. Reacting to the travel bans, South Africa's Health Minister Joe Phaahla said that the travel restrictions on South Africa are unjustified at this point. During the total lockdown when the pandemic started, we had total chaos as people tried to get out of South Africa urgently, and it looks like we might face an even worse situation this weekend, she said.

Source: The Telegraph November 27, 2021 18:17 UTC