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US restricts travel from MW, other countries over Covid-19

Malawi is among eight southern African countries from which the United States of America has restricted travel after a new Covid-19 variant was detected in a traveller from Malawi.

 The Ministry of Health has since said it is investigating the traveller who is reported to have travelled from Malawi to Israel and was found with the new B.1.1.529 Covid-19 variant, which has been named Omicron.

According to a news report published on Friday on American business news channel CNBC, flights from South Africa, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Namibia, Lesotho, eSwatini and Mozambique will be blocked starting tomorrow.

A health worker administers the Covid-19 vaccine

CNBC reported that the move is part of global efforts to stem the spread of the heavily mutated Covid-19 variant.

But in a press statement issued yesterday, Ministry of Health Principal Secretary Charles Mwansambo said although the Malawi Government had not been officially communicated to by the Israeli Government on the matter, the ministry was following up the issue to get more details to ascertain the incident and to facilitate contact tracing.

Said the PS: “So far, from the samples that we have been collecting, the Omicron variant has not been isolated. However, surveillance on the same has been intensified and the country will be informed accordingly on any development.” 

He encouraged all travellers to strictly follow all Covid-19 preventive measures, saying there is a possible risk of getting infected with the virus while in transit.

The ministry has since advised those working in the country’s borders  to screen both incoming and outgoing travellers and to ensure that they have a negative PCR test certificate.

Those  that are Covid-19 positive should not be allowed to leave the country, according to the statement.

In an interview yesterday, the ministry’s spokesperson Adrian Chikumbe said as new variants keep emerging, there was a need for the public to sustain high levels of compliance to Covid-19 preventive measures, including vaccination.

Commenting on the US travel restriction, he said any country may impose similar restrictions to protect its citizenry.

As of Thursday, according to the Covid-19 updates from the Ministry of Health, Malawi had 573 active cases, five new cases, 61 872 total number of cases and 58 763 cases of recoveries since the first case hit the country in March 2020.

The US decision comes less than three weeks after the administration lifted Covid-19 travel restrictions on visitors from over 30 countries, including South Africa, in favour of vaccine requirements for international tourists.

Malawi, Namibia and Mozambique were among the 51 countries the US exempted from the vaccine requirement because of low availability.

According to Sky News, scientists have expressed concern that the new Covid-19 variant, first identified in Botswana, could render existing vaccines incapable of protecting people from infection.

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