African Travel Grows Harder By the Day With Virus Curbs

(Bloomberg) --

Africa is inching toward a shutdown of its sea, land and air borders. A majority of its 54 nations have banned flights from countries with at least 100 coronavirus cases or temporarily closed their domestic and international airports. Most sea ports still allow cargo vessels, but passengers and crews from cruise ships are barred.

• Key regional carriers such as South African Airways, Royal Air Maroc, Nigeria’s Air Peace and Air Cote d’Ivoire have halted all flights for at least three weeks
• Kenya Airways has suspended all international flights until further notice; the last flight to New York from Nairobi left March 25, filled with U.S. citizens who paid more than $3000 for a seat in economy class
• Five African countries have imposed a full lock-down
• The Indian Ocean island nations of Mauritius, Madagascar and Seychelles have shut down their international airports and won’t allow any cruise ships
• Most countries have closed their land borders to non-residents
• Benin, Zambia and Mozambique are among the exceptions and have kept their land borders open even as main trading partners have shut theirs
• Africa has about 3,200 confirmed cases of the coronavirus, including 83 deaths

©2020 Bloomberg L.P.