WHO remains against the knee-jerk reaction of many countries closing borders against the new heavily-mutated variant of concern, Omicron.
THE recent discovery of a new variant that is believed more contagious than the dreaded Delta variant has forced many countries to suspend travel from southern Africa even as African nations also close borders to contain the spread.
On Friday, November 26, the World Health Organization formally classified the Covid-19 variant B.1.1.529, found in at least 36 African countries, as a variant of concern (VOC) and named Omicron.
A SARS-CoV-2 VOC has genetic differences, may cause significant and increased community transmissibility while also could be more resistant to vaccines and medicines currently being used for Covid-19 prevention and diagnostics.
Including Omicron, there are only four variants the WHO has labeled as VOC.
The heavily-mutated new variant has so far been detected in South Africa, Botswana, Belgium, and Hong Kong.
Even before the WHO announcement, several countries including the Philippines have imposed temporary travel suspension of flights from South Africa, Botswana, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Lesotho, Eswatini and Mozambique.
WHO cautioned against the travel bans, calling it unscientific and contrary to the norms and standards of the organization.
As of writing, WHO has asked countries to do the following:
●enhance surveillance and sequencing efforts to better understand circulating SARS-CoV-2 variants.
●submit complete genome sequences and associated metadata to a publicly available database, such as GISAID.
●report initial cases/clusters associated with VOC infection to WHO through the IHR mechanism.
As opposed to closing borders, the organization encourages countries to perform field investigations and laboratory assessments of Omicron.
Despite this, the countries which have declared travel restrictions have not changed their stance on mitigating the entry of the new VOC.
The countries currently implementing travel bans include Germany, EU and some European countries, USA, Canada, Israel, Saudi Arabia, Singapore and Malaysia, Japan, India, and Hong Kong.
As for the Philippines, Cabinet Secretary and acting presidential spokesman Karlo Nograles said the temporary travel ban “shall take effect immediately and until Dec. 15, 2021.”
Travelers from or had recently been in the aforementioned countries are being required to undergo a 14-day facility-based quarantine with RT-PCR test on the seventh day.
Tags: #WHO, #travelban, #bordercontrol, #covid19variant, #omicron