At a media briefing on Friday, South Africa's Health Minister said the move to place travel restrictions on the country is unjust.
The US, Europe, and Asia banned travel from southern Africa.
The travel bans imposed by other countries were "kind of knee-jerk reaction," according to CNBC. He said that it goes against the standards of the World Health Organization.
Covid-19 is a global health emergency. "We must work together, not punish each other." Witches hunts do not benefit anyone. South Africa wants to be an honest player in the world, sharing health info not just for benefit to South Africans and citizens of the world.
According to CNBC, Phaahla said that vaccines are still effective.
Omicron was labeled a "variant of concern" by the WHO on Friday. Two cases of the Omicron variant have been found in the UK and there is a connection with travel to southern Africa.
The variant has yet to be detected in the US according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Anthony Fauci, the nation's leading infectious disease expert, said that it's only a matter of time.
When you have a virus that is showing this degree of transmissibility, and you're already having travel-related cases that they've noted in Israel and Belgium and other places, it almost invariably is.
The issue of blocking travel from a given country is to give us time to assess it better. We want to give ourselves some time to fill in the blanks of what we don't know so that we don't panic," the outlet reported.
