As government officials are busy compiling the list of countries whose citizens would be allowed into SA next month, they must rely solely on the World Health Organisation (WHO) guidelines to ensure the safety of locals.
WHO advises countries lifting bans on international travel to do a full-scale risk assessment. "The gradual lifting of travel measures [or temporary restrictions] should be based on a thorough risk assessment, taking into account country context, the local epidemiology and transmission patterns, the national health and social measures to control the outbreak, and the capacities of health systems in both departure and destination countries, including at points of entry.
"Any subsequent measure must be proportionate to public health risks and should be adjusted based on a risk assessment, conducted regularly and systematically as the Covid-19 situation evolves and communicated regularly to the public."
The government is expected to release the list of countries whose people would be welcome in SA and to ban nations with high rates of infections. Our sister publication Sunday Times reported yesterday as senior government officials were in discussions about which countries should be allowed in, they were also worried about risking "diplomatic issues" if they block the ones with strong trading ties with SA such as Brazil and India. The two nations were ranked in the top five of countries with high Covid-19 infections yesterday.
"The argument is, do we continue trade and tourism based on our Brics partnership or do we close our doors and risk diplomatic issues?" asked a senior government insider who asked not to be named.
However, minister of tourism Mmamoloko Kubayi-Ngubane, in the same article, said they would follow WHO guidelines when deciding which countries' citizens be allowed in. That is welcome and we hope they stick to that.
Diplomatic and trade relations are important, especially with the current state of the global economy. Every country will need partners to get back up but right now those relations are not above saving lives.
We are in the middle of a pandemic. Government's priorities should be on ensuring the country contains the spread of Covid-19 and allow only visitors from countries with low infection levels. This is in everyone's interest, as a second wave of the virus would be devastating.
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