South African Tourism (SA Tourism) and the Tourism Business Council of South Africa (TBCSA) have noted the latest reports on the new Covid-19 variant (now called Omicron) discovered by South African scientists and the subsequent placing of our country on various countries’ red lists, effectively banning travel from South Africa to these countries.
We applaud the diligence of our globally renowned local scientists who discovered the variant through collaborative efforts with laboratories and the Network for Genomic Surveillance in South Africa and acted swiftly to inform the rest of the world, in compliance with their international obligations. Our country’s epidemiological reputation is world-class and South Africa prides itself on this. This important discovery was also noted and commended by Secretary of State in the US Antony Blinken, who praised South Africa for quickly identifying the new Covid-19 strain and sharing this information with the world.
While the…