Jittery nations rush to restrict travel as new variant emerges – Times of India

European countries on Friday joined Singapore, Israel and others in restricting travel from southern Africa in a frantic effort to keep a newly identified, and apparently significantly evolved, variant of the coronavirus from crossing into their borders.
In the past, governments have taken days, weeks or months to issue travel restrictions in response to new variants. This time, restrictions came within hours of South Africa’s announcement — at least 10 countries had announced measures before South African scientists had finished a meeting with WHO experts about the variant on Friday. There is no proof yet that the variant could diminish the protective power of the vaccines, but uncertainty on that question was one factor in the speed of countries’ move toward restrictions. Epidemiologists urged calm on Friday, noting that little is known about the variant and that several seemingly threatening variants have come and gone in recent months.
News of the variant prompted Britain, France, Italy and others to bar flights and impose restrictions. Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Union’s executive arm, said in a Twitter post on Friday morning that it would also propose restricting air travel to European countries from southern Africa.

So far only a few dozen cases of the new variant have been identified. But the case in Israel was a person who had recently arrived from Malawi, according to the state broadcaster, Kan. And Belgium’s case was detected in a woman who had recently returned from travel abroad, but not to South Africa or neighboring countries, researchers said.
“More data is needed but we’re taking precautions now,” Sajid Javid, the British health secretary, said on Twitter.
The discovery of the variant by South African authorities this week comes as the virus was already galloping across the continent in a deadly fourth wave, especially in Eastern Europe where vaccination levels are low and restrictions have been loose.
Italy’s decision on Friday to block travel from South Africa and the region showed that even a country that has generally been ahead of the wave, vaccinating much of its population and introducing early, and then progressively stricter, health passes to keep infections low, is not taking any chances.
The history of the pandemic has shown that blocking flights has not been a panacea in stopping the virus, and especially variants that spread with increasing ease. But this time, countries acted much earlier and more restrictions seemed likely. Meanwhile, after the closed-door experts’ meeting convened by WHO to assess the new variant and to designate it as either a variant of interest or a variant of concern, the organisation cautioned countries against hastily imposing travel restrictions linked to the new variant, saying they should take a “risk-based and scientific approach”.