South African President Cyril Ramaphosa Monday decried
the travel bans being imposed upon South Africans following the detection of
the omicron variant. The omicron variant, first detected in South Africa, has
now spread to several countries across the world. The variant is said to be
highly-mutative in character and the World Health Organization (WHO) has
identified it as a “variant of concern”. Initial evidence suggests the virus has
a high re-infection risk.

Describing the travel curbs as unjustified, Cyril
Ramaphosa said that he was deeply disappointed by the action and called upon
the bans to be urgently lifted. The United States, the United Kingdom and the European
Union have imposed curbs on travel on people coming from “at-risk countries”.

Initially called the B.1.1529, the omicron variant was
detected in South Africa last month in the Gauteng province, the most populated
province. Most of the cases in South Africa are now of the omicron variant.

Also Read | Why did WHO skip two Greek letters to name Omicron COVID variants?

The World Health Organization (WHO) has also warned
countries against imposing travel curbs, The health body said countries should use
a “risk-based and scientific approach”.

Matshidisho Moeti, WHO’s Africa director, said Sunday,
“With the omicron variant now detected in several regions of the world, putting
in place travel bans that target Africa attacks global solidarity.”

According to Ramaphosa, the only thing the travel ban
will do is to further damage the economies of the affected countries and undermine
their ability to respond to and recover from the pandemic.

Also Read | Omicron: List of countries ‘at risk’ and situation in India

Cyril Ramaphosa further appealed to South Africans to get
vaccinated adding that there are no vaccine shortages in South Africa. The South
African foreign ministry strongly criticised the travel bans, saying the
country was being punished instead of being applauded for discovering omicron.

Thirteen people tested positive for omicron in the
Netherlands. Israel banned all foreigners from the country for 14 days from
midnight Sunday.