Travel Bans to Stop Omicron’s Spread a ‘Mistake,’ UN Agency Says

(Bloomberg) -- Travel bans to try and stop the omicron strain from spreading are a “mistake” and pose a greater risk to African economies than the threat of the virus itself, according to the head of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa. 

The restrictions could push more people in the continent into poverty, said Vera Songwe, Uneca’s executive director. The agency was already estimating that 70 million jobs would be lost because of the pandemic, she said. 

The strain was first sequenced in southern Africa prompting a flurry of travel bans to at least eight countries on the continent, hitting their beleaguered tourism industries ahead of the year-end holiday season. While Western nations are quickly moving to give additional inoculations as new variants emerge, unavailability of vaccines has resulted in less than 7% of the population in Africa receiving full doses.  

“Countries don’t want to lock down so they prefer to shut others out,” Songwe said in an interview. “We should avoid making the same mistake we made with the vaccine, which is sort of saying let’s just protect ourselves, but unfortunately, let’s shut Africa out.” 

The World Health Organization said on Monday that the omicron variant carried a “very high” risk of infection surges, owing to its number of genetic mutations compared with previous strains, adding that South Africa and Botswana should be “applauded and not punished.”

“More importantly, overall growth on the continent will be stymied,” Songwe said. “I think it’s understandable that the reaction on the continent is a little bit baffled by the fact that all of the countries in southern Africa are now facing a travel ban.”

The rush to close borders -- Japan and Israel completely shut out overseas visitors -- prompted Uday Kotak, the world’s richest banker, to tweet that “policy makers world wide will shoot from the hip in crisis management without data.”

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