South African President Cyril Ramaphosa said his country is being penalized for detecting the latest Covid-19 “variant of concern,” dubbed Omicron, urging other nations to lift travel bans imposed amid alarm over the new strain.
“Excellent science should be applauded and not punished,” the president said during a state visit to Nigeria on Wednesday, noting that a growing number of countries had instituted travel bans on South Africa “as a result of the discovery by our scientists of the new Omicron variant of the coronavirus.”
It is our hope that the countries that have imposed these bans urgently reconsider their decisions.
Though Ramaphosa said he recognized nations have the right to “take the necessary precautionary measures to protect their citizens,” he stressed that “this pandemic requires collaboration and sharing of expertise,” calling on other states in the region to unite against “arbitrary,”“unscientific” and “discriminatory” restrictions.
The president’s comments echoed a statement issued by the South African Foreign Ministry over the weekend, which also declared that the country was being “punished” for its “excellent science,” saying the travel bans were “akin to punishing South Africa for its advanced genomic sequencing and the ability to detect new variants quicker.”
However, while the new variant triggered near-immediate panic across Asia, Europe and beyond after it was first detected, local health officials have called for a more cautious approach. The chair of the South African Medical Association, Dr. Angelique Coetzee – who personally announced the discovery of the first Omicron patient – has argued that the “heavy travel restrictions” brought in the UK and elsewhere were hasty and unjustified.
“The simple truth is: we don’t know yet anywhere near enough about Omicron to make such judgments or to impose such policies,” Coetzee wrote in an op-ed earlier this week, adding that “In South Africa, we’ve retained a sense of perspective. We’ve had no new regulations or talk of lockdowns because we’re waiting to see what the variant actually means.”
The United States has also imposed new travel bans on eight African nations, including South Africa, due to concerns over Omicron, with the first infection spotted in the country on Wednesday in California. Top White House Covid-19 adviser Anthony Fauci defended the policy the same day, arguing that the restrictions were needed to “buy time temporarily,” even while acknowledging some of the affected countries have not seen a single case of the new variant.
Împotriva articolelor redacției noastre, persoanele nemulțumite pot formula Contestație în termen de 10 zile de la publicarea articolului, la judecătoria Orășenească nr. 1 München Bayern Deutschland, in conformitate cu Legea federală Germană. Considerăm că nu se pot formula acțiuni la instanțele din România deoarece nici o persoană care activează în trustul nostru nu poate fi extrasă de sub jurisdicția federală germană. Considerăm că redacția noastră nu răspunde în fața autorităților din România ci doar celor federale sau civile germane. deoarece legea română nu are efecte de extraneitate asupra redacției chiar dacă subiectul știrilor face obiectul unor evenimente sau persoane din România și sunt scrise în limba română. Limba română nu este izvor de extraneitate a legii.
absolvent WEB DESIGN Academia Britanică de Comunicare Iasi - absolvent COMUNICARE IN AFACERI Academia Britanica de Afaceri si Comunicare -absolvent JURNALISM EDITORIAL - London School University - 2019 inscris la echivalare diploma la Universitatea Politehnica Timisoara - absolvent studii de Drept Universitatea Europeană Drăgan, cursuri in Drept la Universitatea de Vest Timisoara, absolvent studii de proiectare, pastor coordonator in Biserica Protestanta Evanghelica,
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