US travel ban: South Africa, Zimbabwe, Malawi, and oda flights go dey temporarily blocked from US sake of new coronavirus variant
Wia dis foto come from, Reuters
US go restrict travel from South Africa and seven oda southern African kontries to try to contain one new coronavirus variant wey dey spread dia.
From Monday, only US citizens and residents go dey allowed to travel from di region.
Dis one dey follow one similar flight ban wey EU and UK impose. Canada dey also introduce travel restrictions.
Di World Health Organization (WHO) don earlier declare say di new variant dey "of concern", come name am Omicron.
US officials say flights from South Africa, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Namibia, Lesotho, Eswatini, Mozambique and Malawi go dey blocked, dis one follow earlier moves wey EU also take. Di ban go come into effect on Monday.
Inside statement, President Joe Biden say di move na "precautionary measure" wey dem take until sabi pipo sabi more tins about di variant.
Canada dey also shut down dia borders to foreign travellers wey don recently go South Africa, Namibia, Lesotho, Botswana, Eswatini, Zimbabwe and Mozambique. Foreign citizens go dey banned from Canada if dem don go dis seven nations in di past 14 days.
Dem first report di Omicron variant to di WHO from South Africa on 24 November, and since den, dem don identify am for oda kontries.
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South Africa health ministry don criticise di rush to impose new travel restrictions, dem call dem "draconian", and contrary to WHO guidance.
Scientists say dem still get plenti tins to learn about di virus new mutations, and WHO say e go take a few weeks to understand di impact of di new variant, as experts dey work to determine how easily e fit transmit.
WHO on Friday say first evidence suggest say di new variant carry higher risk of reinfection dan oda variants.
Scientists say na di most heavily mutated version wey don show yet, e mean say Covid vaccines, wey dem design wey dem use di original strain from Wuhan, China, fit no dey as effective.
Di WHO say so far, fewer dan 100 sample sequences na im dem don get report about. Dem don mainly confam cases for South Africa, but dem don also detect am for Hong Kong, Israel, Botswana and Belgium.
Most of di cases for South Africa don come from di most populated province, Gauteng, of which Johannesburg na die capital city.
Meanwhile, the flight bans dey threaten to separate families over di festive season.
