It is so far the last country to re-implement strict border controls.
Japan on Monday announced the closure of its borders to all foreign visitors to curb the omicron variant of Covid-19, joining a growing list of countries that are raising barriers against the highly mutated version of the virus.
Meanwhile, the G7 health ministers will meet in emergency on Monday to discuss the omicron variant, in a meeting called by the group’s presidency, led by the United Kingdom, one of the countries that registered cases of the variant.
Japan was the last country to re-implement strict border controls, something many considered a thing of the past, by preventing the arrival of foreigners.
“We are going to ban the (new) entry of foreigners from around the world from November 30,” Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida told reporters.
The Philippines also announced that it would temporarily suspend its plans to allow the entry of tourists with full vaccination to prevent the spread of the new variant.
Ómicron, initially detected in southern Africa, posed a new challenge to the global effort to combat the pandemic.
“We know we are in a race against time,” said the head of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, adding that vaccine manufacturers need two to three weeks “to have a complete picture of the quality of the mutations.” .
Several countries imposed travel restrictions on southern Africa, including Qatar, the United States, the United Kingdom, Indonesia, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and the Netherlands.
Angola was the first African country to suspend flights from its regional neighbors Mozambique, Namibia and South Africa.
Economic damage
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa on Sunday called on countries to lift travel restrictions “before further damage is done to our economies.”
In turn, the head of the World Health Organization (WHO) in Africa urged countries to follow the science instead of imposing flight restrictions to contain the new variant.
“With the omicron variant detected in various regions of the world, applying travel restrictions for Africa is an attack on global solidarity,” said WHO regional director Matshidiso Moeti.
Dutch authorities said they identified at least 13 omicron cases among 61 passengers who tested positive for the coronavirus after arriving from South Africa.
The Dutch border police announced that they detained a couple on a plane at Amsterdam airport after fleeing the hotel where they were quarantined.
Despite the new threat, tens of thousands protested in Austria against mandatory vaccination in the country, the first in the EU to apply such a measure.
Chancellor Alexander Schallenberg called the protest “minor interference” for the country with one of the lowest vaccination rates in Western Europe.
Meanwhile, voters in Switzerland gave strong support to a law establishing the covid passport, in a referendum held on Sunday.
In the UK, Health Secretary Sajid Javid said that new health rules come into force on Tuesday, including the use of masks in shops and public transport, as well as more restrictions on passengers arriving from abroad.
Mild symptoms
And as scientists try to determine the threat level of the new variant, a South African doctor noted that dozens of her patients suspected of carrying the omicron variant showed mild symptoms, such as fatigue.
Angelique Coetzee, president of the South African Medical Association, told AFP who saw 30 patients in the last 10 days who tested positive for COVID-19 and recovered without hospitalization.
In turn, the White House adviser on the pandemic, Anthony Fauci, said that he continues “to believe that existing vaccines should provide a degree of protection against severe cases of covid.”
Israel announced some of the toughest restrictions, including closing borders to all foreigners, four weeks after reopening for tourists.
“We are raising the red flag,” said Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett.
But the new variant managed to evade controls and has appeared in numerous countries, including Canada, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Botswana, Hong Kong and Australia.
Scientists in South Africa last week unveiled the new variant with many more mutations than the beta or delta variants, the latter affecting the global economic recovery and sending millions of people into lockdown.
The Bambino Gesu hospital in Rome got the first “image” of the new variant and confirmed that it has more mutations than the delta, but that does not mean that it is more dangerous, according to the researchers. (I)
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