The seemingly highly transmissible Covid-19 Omicron variant had “probably already spread globally”, rendering the implementation of travel bans pointless.
Travel bans were ineffective in stopping the spread of the new Covid-19 variant and cause significantly more damage than good, top SA scientists write in a comment piece published in the Lancet.
The authors — Marc Mendelson, Francois Venter, Mosa Moshabela, Glenda Gray, Lucille Blumberg, Tulio de Oliveira and Shabir Madhi — say that the horse had long since bolted when it came to the Omicron variant, and that the travel bans implemented across the world were not only ineffective, but also did significantly more harm than good.
Last week, SA health authorities announced the discovery of the new variant. Within a day, travel bans had already been introduced, first by the UK and then by a host of other nations. “Omicron has probably already spread globally. Countries with robust surveillance and genomics capability will be able to identify cases early; others will not. The folly of restricting travel to a handful of countries at best might only buy some time before the virus variant is eventually imported.
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