We need more stringent border controls implemented immediately to save South Africans from the new Covid-19 variant.
Health minister Zweli Mkhize said on Tuesday evening there were no confirmed cases of the B.1.617 Covid-19 variant but they were conducting further tests on positive samples of a number of people, including three who had flown in from India. He said the distress over the new variants had created “exclusive and sometimes even racist rhetoric”.
As expected, the news of people being tested for the variant after flying in created panic and raised a number of questions about our border controls. We are approaching winter with the anticipation of a third wave. The thought of people importing the new variant that is wreaking havoc in India is terrifying. India is a hotspot for the variant. It is recording more than 300,000 new cases every day.
Mkhize said the three air travellers from India who had tested positive for Covid-19 had came via Doha. One of them arrived in SA on April 21 and the other two on April 25. All came through King Shaka International Airport. This shows that our officials need to be more alert and for systems to be tightened, as passport stamps always indicate where a traveller had been. So how was this missed and entry granted?
“We share our people's concerns but wish to reassure South Africans that we are a very capable nation that knows how to deal with the burden of a variant of concern (VOC). Our teams remain on high alert to survey, detect and contain the spread of Covid-19 in general, with heightened awareness of travellers from countries where VOCs are dominating,” said Mkhize.
When SA was hit by variant 501Y.V2, which was first identified late last year and was responsible for the vicious second wave, many countries blocked anybody who had been in SA in bid to contain the variant. How do we still permit travellers to land here from countries where the VOCs are widespread? The government should not be telling us that they are concerned but should be talking about how they are going to block travellers from hotspots.
Covid-19 has been around for more than a year now. Surely we have learnt something from that period and it must show in how we respond to such situations.
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