Ómicron: South Africa is alarmed by the “unjustified” international reaction to the new variant of the virus discovered in the country

The president described the emergence of the omicron variant as a wake-up call to the world regarding inequality in the distribution of vaccines and warned that until much of the world’s population is vaccinated, more variables will be inevitable.

An earlier statement from South Africa’s foreign ministry also harshly criticized the travel ban, describing the country as “punishing” rather than praising its discovery of Omicron.

According to the text, the discovery of a new variant there is due to the fact that the country has the technology and technical capacity to detect new mutations of the virus.

“South Africa’s testing capacity and its accelerated vaccination programme, backed by a world-class scientific community, should give our global partners the peace of mind we do as they do managing a pandemic.”

The United Kingdom, the European Union, Israel, Canada and the United States are among those imposing travel restrictions from South African countries in recent days.

The highly mutated variant was first reported to the World Health Organization on Wednesday and preliminary evidence points to an increased risk of infection again.

But one of the experts who discovered it told the BBC on Sunday that symptoms appeared to be moderate to mild.

The variant is responsible for most of the infections found in South Africa’s most populous province of Gauteng, over the past two weeks, and is now found in every other province in the country.

The World Health Organization warned on Saturday against countries imposing travel restrictions hastily, saying it was best to take a “scientific, risk-based approach”.

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