With the dawn of another variant of Coronavirus pandemic, known as Omicron, Nigeria is turn between sustaining its solidarity with South Africa where the variant was first announced or shut out the country. As Africa is growingly being isolated over the strain of the virus, Chinedu Eze writes that Omicron will further stifle air travel in the continent.
When South Africa announced the new strain of Coronavirus pandemic on November 25, the reaction was shocking, as many countries began to ban flights from South Africa and other nations of the southern sub-region. There were even desperate efforts to link the origin of COVID-19 to Africa, as if the world has forgotten so soon the genesis of the virus.
There was report that indicated that the surprising number of mutations in the Omicron Coronavirus (COVID-19) variant could signal that it originated in a patient with HIV or another immunodeficiency, a top German immunology expert, Carsten Watzl, secretary general of the German Society for Immunology, was quoted to have said.
With that announcement countries banned flight operations to South Africa, Bostwana, Eswatini, Lesotho, Mozambique, Namibia and Zimbabwe and later Canada included Nigeria, Egypt and Malawi, where air travellers are banned from coming to the North American country.
The countries that banned flights to these African nations include: Angola, Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, Denmark, Egypt, Fiji, France, Germany, Greece, India and Indonesia.
Others include Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Kuwait, Maldives, Malta, Morocco, Netherlands, New Zealand, Oman, Pakistan, Philippines, Russia, Rwanda, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Spain, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Turkey, UAE, United Kingdom and the United States.
Rejection
BBC reported that South Africa has complained it is being punished – instead of applauded – for discovering Omicron. South Africa’s Health Minister, Joe Phaahla, said there was “absolutely no need to panic” over the new coronavirus variant Omicron, despite a surge in cases.
“We have been here before,” h said, referring to the Beta variant detected in South Africa last December. South Africa also condemned the travel bans imposed on the country, saying they should be lifted immediately.
However, World Health Organisation (WHO) said Omicron mutates heavily so it is likely to spread internationally and poses a very high risk of infection surges that could have “severe consequences” in some places.
Although no Omicron-linked deaths had yet been reported, but WHO said further research was needed to assess its potential to resist vaccines and immunity induced by previous infections.
Anticipating increased case numbers as the variant, first reported last week, spreads, WHO urged its 194 member states to accelerate vaccination of high-priority groups.
On the attitude of the world to South Africa, WHO condemned that travel ban and urged countries around the world not to impose flight ban on southern African nations due to concerns over the new Omicron COVID-19 variant.
WHO’s regional director for Africa, Matshidiso Moeti, called on countries to follow science and international health regulations in order to avoid using travel restrictions.
“Travel restrictions may play a role in slightly reducing the spread of COVID -19 but place a heavy burden on lives and livelihoods,” Moeti said in a statement. “If restrictions are implemented, they should not be unnecessarily invasive or intrusive, and should be scientifically based, according to the International Health Regulations, which is a legally binding instrument of international law recognised by over 190 nations.”
Moeti praised South Africa for following international health regulations and informing WHO as soon as its national laboratory identified the Omicron variant.
“The speed and transparency of the South African and Botswana governments in informing the world of the new variant is to be commended,” said Moeti. “WHO stands with African countries which had the courage to boldly share life-saving public health information, helping protect the world against the spread of COVID-19.”
While investigations continue into the Omicron variant, WHO recommended that all countries “take a risk-based and scientific approach and put in place measures which can limit its possible spread.”
Travel Ban
Besides the ban by countries, so far Emirates Airlines was reported to have suspended flights to three African countries until further notice. In a statement, the Gulf State carrier announced that it would be suspending flights to and from South Africa, Zambia, and Zimbabwe from Saturday, November 27.
NPR has reported that studies suggest that travel ban alone do not do much in curtailing the spread of the virus or its variant. The medium noted that though scientists have little information about the new variant and aren’t certain where it originated from, several countries, including the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom and the European Union announced almost immediate travel ban from South Africa and other southern African nations.
As at November 30, these countries have detected Omicron according to CNN: Australia: 6 cases Austria: 1 case Belgium: 1 case Botswana: 19 cases Canada: 3 cases
Czech Republic: 1 case Denmark: 2 cases France: 1 case (on Reunion Island) Germany: 4 cases
Hong Kong: 3 cases Israel: 2 cases Italy: 4 cases Japan: 1 case Netherlands: 14 cases Portugal: 13 cases South Africa: 77 cases Spain: 1 case Sweden: 1 case United Kingdom: 14 cases.
Nigeria on December 1, 2021 announced that cases Omicron variant had been confirmed in Nigeria.
“The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) conducts case and genomic surveillance for inbound international travelers arriving in the country at its National Reference Laboratory (NRL), Abuja and network of other testing laboratories. Sequencing of samples from COVID-19 positive inbound travelers is currently conducted in laboratories with sequencing capacity in the country and all the sequencing data are shared in publicly accessible databases.
This genomic surveillance has now identified and confirmed Nigeria’s first cases of the B.1.1.529 SARS-CoV-2 lineage, now known as the Omicron variant. Samples obtained for the stipulated day two test for all travelers to Nigeria were positive for this variant in three persons with history of travel to South Africa,” NCDC stated.
Pavlovian Response
In what it refers to as Pavlovian response, the International Air Transport Association (IATA) excoriated countries that slammed travel ban on South Africa and other countries in the sub-region. Like Pavlovian conditioning, which is a reflex or knee-jack approach, IATA accused these countries of travel ban and counseled that they should have adopted a more effective ways than to ban travel to the countries of the southern sub-region of the African continent.
“After nearly two years of dealing with COVID-19, we should have progressed beyond these knee-jerk, uncoordinated, Pavlovian-like responses, to recognise that the virus is well on its way to being endemic. Public health officials tell us that we should expect variants to emerge. And by the time they are detected, the reality is that they are probably already present around the globe.
“That is what is happening now. We are already finding Omicron in parts of the world far from South Africa, where it was first identified. Travel restrictions are not going to stop the spread. And they will do real harm to people and economies,” IATA said.
In order to reinforce its position against travel ban, IATA quoted medical experts who share the same view and warned against travel ban.
“It’s really important that there are no knee jerk responses here, especially with relation to South Africa. South Africa is picking up interesting and important information for which we are doing the proper risk assessment and risk management. We have seen in the past that when there is any mention of a variant then everyone is closing borders and restricting travel. It is really important that we remain open and focused on characterising the problem, not punishing countries for doing outstanding scientific work and being open and transparent about what they are seeing and what they are finding,” said WHO Executive Director, Mike Ryan.
The African Union Vaccine Delivery Alliance C-Chair, Dr Ayoade Alakija described the action of the countries banning travel to some African countries as politics, as those countries did not equally announce travel ban to some countries outside Africa, where the new COVID-19 variant was found.
“Africa CDC strongly discourages the imposition of travel bans for people originating from countries that have reported this variant. In fact, over the duration of this pandemic, we have observed that imposing bans on travelers from countries where a new variant is reported has not yielded a meaningful outcome. Rather implementing PHSM (Public Health and Social Measures) should be prioritized,” said African Centre for Disease Control and Prevention.
“These travel bans are based in politics, and not in science. It is wrong…Why are we locking away Africa when this virus is already on three continents?” said Alakija.
IATA also observed, “International travel all but stopped in April 2020; and the virus spread despite the assurances of our political leaders that banning travel would control it. To date, over 260 million people are known to have been infected. Many more cases are probably unreported. Meanwhile, the human and economic cost of de-connecting the world may never truly be calculated.”
In fact, there are indications that before South Africa announced the discovery of the Omicron variant, it had been found in Netherlands and possibly other European countries. CBS News reported that the Omicron variant had been in Europe before South Africa announced and made it known to the world.
“Dutch health authorities announced on Tuesday that they found the new Omicron variant of coronavirus in cases dating back as long as 11 days, indicating that it was already spreading in western Europe before the first cases were identified in southern Africa. The RIVM health institute said it found Omicron in samples dating from November 19 and 23,” CBS News reported.
Government Efforts
The Presidential Steering Committee on COVID-19 on Tuesday, issued new directives to travellers as part of the measures to contain the new Omicron variant.
Passengers arriving in Nigeria are now required to conduct a PCR test, 48 hours before embarking on their trips to the country and another day two and day seven PCR tests on arrival.
Meanwhile, Nigeria had earlier expressed solidarity with South Africa as it struggled with some of the difficulties posed by a new COVID-19 variant, Omicron, discovered in the country. The Nigerian government had warned Western countries against discrimination against South Africa following travel restrictions imposed on Southern African countries in the aftermath of the new virus discovery.
Last Monday, the Federal Ministry of Health (FMOH) and Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) issued statement and said they were aware of reports of a new COVID-19 variant – the B.1.1.529 lineage.
“This SARS-CoV-2 variant has now been designated a variant of concern (VOC) and named; Omicron by the World Health Organisation (WHO) as advised by the independent Technical Advisory Group on SARS-CoV-2 Virus Evolution (TAG-VE). WHO has also urged countries to enhance their surveillance and virus sequencing efforts to increase their understanding of the circulating variants.”
The FMOH and NCDC said it was monitoring emerging evidence on this new variant and its implication, to inform Nigeria’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“However, no deaths have been attributed to this new variant yet. A total of 126 genomes of this variant have been detected globally and published on GISAID, (GISAID is a global mechanism for sharing sequencing data). Given the high number of mutations present in this Omicron variant and the exponential rise in COVID-19 cases observed in South Africa, this virus is considered highly transmissible and may also present an increased risk of reinfection compared to other VOCs,” the agencies said.
The Ministry and NCDC noted that the fears about Omicron variant’s ability to evade protective immune responses and/or its being vaccine resistant are only theoretical so far.
“This virus can still be detected with existing Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) tests.
With three cases confirmed in Nigeria, it is expected that health authorities would introduce more stringent measures to control the spread virus.
