The SA government has called for calm amid growing fears about the highly transmittable Covid-19 variant first discovered in India entering the country.
The OR Tambo, King Shaka and Cape Town international airports have now been put on high alert as efforts are afoot to ensure that travellers entering the country are thoroughly screened and, if needed, tested on the spot.
This comes as parliament, scientists and academics call on the SA government to be more vigilant. Several countries across the world including the US, UK, Germany, Australia and Italy have already banned travellers from India in an effort to limit the new Covid-19 variant's spread.
India has been hit by a crippling Covid-19 second wave which has overwhelmed health facilities, leading to an average 300,000 infections in the past 13 days. The second wave has also been attributed to a mixture of highly transmissible variants of Covid-19 collectively called B.1.617.
Health minister Dr Zweli Mkhize said South Africans need not panic as there were no direct flights from India to SA and that ports of entry have stringent protocols.
"Our ports of entry employ stringent containment procedures to minimise the importation of Covid-19. We are currently on high alert to screen passengers and test those who require further assessment," Mkhize said.
Mkhize said the department is aware of the concerns which have been "raised both directly with us and on social media" regarding possible importation of the variant circulating in India, known as the B.1.617.
Mkhize said they have consulted the ministerial advisory committee (MAC) for advice. "Their advice will assist us to determine the next steps forward, of which government will announce. For now we ask for calm to prevail," he said.
His spokesperson Popo Maja said all travellers entering the country, including those from India flying in through other countries, were a threat, hence the three airports were put on high alert.
MAC's co-chair Prof Koleka Mlisana said what is important right now is making sure that there are systems and processes that ensure strict control measures at ports of entry and that this should not be limited to travellers from India.
"Right now there's already a policy that says everybody who's coming into the country must come with a negative PCR test done in the previous 72 hours," Mlisana said.
She said if there are concerns on trusting negative results that passengers present, SA would be looking into doing its own testing on travellers entering the country. "The same variant that is in India, that everyone is panicking about, is now in 20 other countries ... so it's not going to be a good decision to just focus on India," Mlisana said.
Mlisana said they are trying to get a full understanding on the behaviour of the Covid-19 pandemic in India leading to the current situation in that country.
University of KwaZulu-Natal's Prof Tulio de Oliveira called for increased screenings at SA ports of entry to ensure a speedy isolation and contact tracing should those with Covid-19 symptoms be identified.
Prof Adrian Puren, acting executive director at the National Institute of Communicable Diseases, said even though there was no "sequence data" which showed that the variant which is dominant in India was in SA, there was a need for the country to remain vigilant.
"If we do not control further spread it could become a dominant variant. However, there is limited evidence that this is the case."
Chairperson of the parliamentary portfolio committee on tourism, Supra Mahumapelo, said the current surge of the Covid-19 pandemic in India is a cause for concern for the local tourism sector and the safe reopening of international travel.
"The committee called for the government and the national coronavirus command council to monitor developments in India to avoid a possible third wave," Mahumapelo said.
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