PARIS (Reuters) – Global airlines blasted governments on Wednesday for worsening the Omicron scare through snap border measures and “rip-off” virus testing regimes, and urged politicians to let travellers make their own decisions based on scientific data. Willie Walsh, director general of the International Air Transport Association, predicted “knee-jerk” border restrictions resulting from the coronavirus […]

The Archbishop of Canterbury in the UK, Justin Welby, has called for human solidarity – for nations around the world to work together to fight Covid-19, rather than banning flights from countries in Africa where Covid-19 cases appear higher. The Archbishop said in a series of tweets that the “only route out of this pandemic […]

While initial laboratory experiments in South Africa have shown that the Omicron variant can “partially evade” protection from the Pfizer vaccine, the news is still better than expected and more promising than many headlines that went out on Tuesday night around the world. Alex Sigal, a professor at the Africa Health Research Institute, announced the […]

The family of  Prince Mangosuthu Buthelezi have confirmed that the 93-year-old traditional Prime Minister to the Zulu Monarch has tested positive once again to Covid-19, but have expressed their relief that he is double vaccinated and “relatively asymptomatic”. The family of the Founder and President Emeritus of the Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP), and Inkosi of […]

The South African Health Department has withdrawn access to EVDS data since October… By James Stent The National Department of Health has blocked access to data from the Electronic Vaccination Data System (EVDS) to researchers from the South African Medical Research Council (MRC), the Western Cape health department, and university-affiliated pandemic research groups. This means […]

The fourth wave has sparked an increase in hospital admissions in children under the age of five, according to the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD). In a briefing led by Health Minister, Dr Joe Phaahla, the NICD’s Dr Waasila Jassat said there has been a rise in children who are in hospital for COVID-19 […]

Two hippos at a zoo in Belgium have tested positive for Covid-19. Fortunately the animals appear to have only a mild form of the illness. Antwerp Zoo said on Facebook: “Our hippos Hermien and Imani have tested positive for COVID-19.” The zoo said that despite the positive test, the animals – aged 41 (Hermien) and […]

Those who have had COVID-19 may be reinfected more easily with the new COVID-19 variant, Omicron, currently spreading across the world, according to preliminary analysis by the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) in South Africa. Scientists are noting a high rate of reinfections during the current resurgence, compared to the previous waves, Professor Anne […]

British tourists reacted with fury on Thursday as they boarded the first British Airways (BA) flight home from Cape Town since Boris Johnson cancelled all flights back to the UK from South Africa last Friday. They were further angered by the disruption and chaos brought to their holidays when BA sent out a text late […]

AMSTERDAM (Reuters) – Dutch health authorities called for pre-flight COVID-19 tests regardless of vaccination status for travel from outside the European Union, revealing that about 90% of the 62 people who tested positive on two flights from South Africa on Nov. 26 had been vaccinated…. By Toby Sterling. Under rules in place at the time, […]

South Africa should be applauded for having alerted the world about the Omicron variant that is now beginning to spread around the world, says President Cyril Ramaphosa. The President has criticised countries who have imposed travel bans on South Africa, following the identification of the COVID-19 variant last week. “We reject that in the strongest […]

The United States Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, today (Tues 30 Nov) praised South Africa for identifying the new variant, Omicron, and the way in which the country shared the news with the world. Blinken said: “I really want to applaud and express gratitude to South Africa and its government for its extraordinary transparency and also […]

Gauteng is seeing continued high levels of COVID-19 cases and hospital admissions, as the fight against the Omicron variant begins, according to Dr Waasila Jassat of the National Institute for Communicable Diseases. She said the majority of patients admitted in Gauteng were not vaccinated, with a smaller proportion of patients admitted being fully or partially […]

South Africa reacted with outrage to travel bans, first triggered by the UK, imposed on it in the wake of the news that its genomics surveillance team had detected a new variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus. The Network for Genomics Surveillance in South Africa has been monitoring changes in SARS-CoV-2 since the pandemic first broke […]

South Africa has reported 2 858 new COVID-19 cases, according to the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) figures. This was 362 fewer infections logged than the previous day. According to the data, this takes the total number of registered cases involving COVID-19 to 2 961 406 since the outbreak. Gauteng remains the hardest-hit province […]

While South Africa will remain on the Coronavirus Alert Level 1, President Cyril Ramaphosa has called on citizens who have not vaccinated to do so immediately. “In taking the decision not to impose further restrictions at this stage, we considered the fact that when we encountered previous waves of infection, vaccines were not widely available […]

President Cyril Ramaphosa has called on all those countries that have imposed travel bans on South Africa, and other Southern African countries, to urgently reverse their decisions… and to rather help in making sure everyone gets vaccinated. “There is no scientific justification for keeping these restrictions in place. We know that this virus, like all […]

South Africa’s tourism and hospitality sector claim they have lost over R1-billion in travel bookings for travel between December 2021 and March 2022 in the past 48 hours, as a result of the travel bans instituted globally against the destination since it announced that it had sequenced a new variant, now known as Omicron. However […]

Dr Angelique Coetzee, who was one of the first South African doctors to suspect a new Covid-19 variant was in the country, says the “hype” around the variant – now known as Omicron – is out of proportion as the symptoms are mild. Dr Coetzee, who is also the Chairperson of the South African Medical […]

The Dutch National Institute for Public Health (RIVM) has confirmed that it has identified the Omicron variant in at least 13 of the 61 Covid-19 positive passengers who arrived in Amsterdam, from South Africa, on Friday. RIVM said in a statement on its site on Sunday that of the 624 passengers who arrived on two […]

Britain’s Prime Minister Boris Johnson says he chatted with South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa on Friday, to discuss the challenges posed globally by the new COVID-19 variant – Omicron – and ways to work together to deal with it and reopen international travel. Last night in addition to the bans on southern African travel, England […]

Britain’s Health Minister, Sajid Javid, has confirmed that two cases of the new Covid-19 variant – Omicron – have been detected in Britain. Both patients had recently travelled from Southern Africa. Javid said: “Late last night I was contacted by the UK Health Security Agency. I was informed that they have detected two cases of […]

JOHANNESBURG, 27 November 2021: Air France says it has taken note of the French authorities’ decision to suspend arrivals from South Africa (and six other southern African countries) for a period of 48 hours as of November 26. As a result, Air France is cancelling its flights from Johannesburg to Paris (AF 995) on November […]

South Africans on two KLM flights to Schiphol Airport in the Netherlands were allegedly herded like sheep yesterday into a small waiting area, after sitting on the tarmac for three hours, and later abandoned by KLM staff and left without food, blankets or access to their medicines while they waited crowded together – with no […]

South Africa confirmed on Thursday that it has detected the new Coronavirus variant B.1.1.529 in the country. Yesterday, Friday 26 Nov, the WHO designated it a ‘Variant of Concern’ (VOC) and named it Omicron. Here’s everything you need to know about Omicron: The variant was discovered through collaborative efforts with private laboratories and the Network […]