Brazil will restrict entry from six African countries due to new variant of the coronavirus

The government of Brazil reported this Friday that it will close its air borders starting next Monday to travelers from six African countries, amid growing international concern about the detection of a new variant of the coronavirus in the region.

The measure will affect travelers from South Africa, Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia, Zimbabwe and Eswatini (formerly Swaziland), as explained by the Minister of the Presidency, Ciro Nogueira, in a post on Twitter.

• Ómicron: United States limits travel from southern African countries due to new variant of COVID-19
• They warn of risk “from high to very high” that omicron variant spreads in Europe
• Argentina strengthens sanitary measures in the face of new variant of the coronavirus

According to Nogueira, the decision, which was taken jointly by the Ministries of the Presidency, Health, Infrastructure and Justice, will be published tomorrow, Saturday in the Official Gazette and will take effect next Monday.

“Brazil will close the air borders for six countries in Africa due to the new variant of the coronavirus. We are going to protect Brazilians in this new phase of the pandemic, ”said the minister.

The measure was announced amid escalating global fears about the emergence of a new variant of the coronavirus, dubbed the “omicron” and which has so far been detected in South Africa, Botswana, Hong Kong (China) and Belgium.

It also comes hours after the Brazilian National Health Surveillance Agency (Anvisa, regulator) recommended the imposition of restrictive measures, temporarily, on passengers from the six aforementioned African countries.

“It is a variant that has more aggressive characteristics and that, obviously, requires immediate measures from the world health authorities,” said the director of Anvisa, Antonio Barra Torres.

This same Friday, the president of Brazil, Jair Bolsonaro, one of the most denialist leaders in the face of the pandemic and who is not vaccinated against the covid, came to reject the closure of the country’s airports, although later he declared that he will adopt “measures rational ”before the spread of the new strain.

With the decision, Brazil joins various countries, such as the United States, Canada, Russia and the members of the European Union (EU), among others, that have restricted the entry of passengers from southern Africa.

With some 213 million inhabitants, 614,000 dead and 22 million infected by the covid, the South American country is in absolute terms the second in the world most affected by the disease, only behind the United States.

According to WHO experts, the new variant detected appears to be more contagious than the previous ones, although there is still no data to determine whether it is more or less resistant to the available covid-19 vaccines.

______________________________

• Journalist who reported on the start of the coronavirus in Wuhan is on the verge of death in jail, according to his family
• Mortuary clerk admits he committed dozens of sexual assaults on corpses
• Austria offers jobs with salaries of up to US $ 4,000 to foreigners, including Peruvians: what profession are they looking for and how to apply?
• Salt Bae Feeds Vietnam’s Communist Minister With More Than $ 1,100 Gold-Plated Steak | VIDEO
• Life sentence for woman who murdered five of her children in revenge because her husband left her
• Bill Gates talks about an upcoming threat that would put the world ‘in check’

.

Deshawn