COVID: EU Lifts Flight Suspension To Southern Africa

By John Ikani

The Suspension of flights to and from southern Africa imposed by the European Union (EU) has been lifted in the wake of omicron variant has been lifted.

The measure comes days after EU member states decided on November 26 to temporarily suspend flights from seven southern African countries.

They were South Africa, Botswana, Eswatini, Lesotho, Namibia, Mozambique and Zimbabwe.

While EU citizens and residents were able to return home by plane, the ban effectively meant that normal air travel was halted.

What the EU is saying

Announcing the lifiting of the ban after a meeting of the bloc’s Integrated Political Crisis Response (IPCR) team, the French presidency of the EU said there had been agreement among member states “to lift the emergency brake in place to allow air traffic with southern African countries to resume.”

“Travelers from this area will, however, remain subject to the health measures applicable to travelers from third countries,” it added.

What you should know

The move followed the identification of the highly mutated omicron variant in South Africa. This variant is now dominant in several EU countries.

COVID-19 has caused more than 5,490,000 deaths worldwide since the start of the pandemic, according to the Johns Hopkins University. The respiratory disease is caused by the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus, detected in late 2019 in Wuhan, a city in central China.

While omicron appears to be far more transmissible that previous variants, evidence is emerging that it tends to affect the upper respiratory tract, causing milder symptoms that past forms of coronavirus.

Although vaccines have proved hugely effective at protecting against serious forms of coronavirus infection, they have had less impact in preventing people from spreading the virus.