Johannesburg, November 27, : South African Health Minister Joe Phaahla described South Africa’s travel bans on South Africa (and some Southern African Development Community countries (SADC)) as a knee-jerk response that is not supported by scientific evidence. “It doesn’t look scientific, it is a knee-jerk reaction and panic reaction.”People want to blame others,” Phaahla said during a virtual question-and-answer media session about the new B.1.1.529 version.
According to Xinhua news agency, South Africa was hit with travel bans from many countries after the discovery of the Covid-19 variant.
Phaahla stated that the bans are “draconian and counterproductive”.
He urged countries to come together to defeat the pandemic, rather than trying to blame others.
“This (travel ban), is not helpful and it is not constructive.
He said that it would make other countries less likely to share information.
Phaahla and Professor Ian Sanne attended the session.
They both said that the new variant is rapidly spreading throughout the country.
“The variant has spread throughout the country.
We are also seeing an increase of case rates, which means that the virus is more transmissible and is the predominant type in the country.Although we have only seen a few cases, we are seeing an increase in the number of cases.”
According to the National Institute for Communicable Diseases, (NICD), there were 2,828 new Covid-19 patients in South Africa within the last 24 hours.There were also 12 deaths related to this, bringing the total number to 2,955,328.
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