Digital display boards show cancelled flights to London - Heathrow at O.R. Tambo International Airport in Johannesburg, South Africa, November 26, 2021. REUTERS/ Sumaya Hisham/File Photo.
Johannesburg: South Africa said on today it was being punished for its advanced ability to detect new COVID-19 variants early, as travel bans and restrictions imposed because of the new Omicron variant threaten to harm tourism and other sectors of the economy.
South Africa has some of the world's top epidemiologists and scientists, who have managed to detect emerging coronavirus variants and their mutations early on in their life cycle. The Omicron variant was first discovered in South Africa and has since been detected in Belgium, Botswana, Israel and Hong Kong.
"This latest round of travel bans is akin to punishing South Africa for its advanced genomic sequencing and the ability to detect new variants quicker," the Ministry of International Relations and Cooperation said.
"Excellent science should be applauded and not punished," it said in a statement.
Many nations rushed on Friday and Saturday to announce travel curbs to South Africa and other countries in the region.
The foreign ministry noted that while the new variant was also detected in other countries, the global reaction to those countries have been "starkly different" to cases in southern Africa.
