COVID-19 Omicron Strain: Is Ramaphosa’s planned visit to Nigeria a Risk?

Concerns is being raised in various quarters in Nigeria regarding the planned visit of South African President, Cyril Ramaphosa to Nigeria. This is a fallout of the recent ban of flights from Southern African countries by 27 EU countries, the US and a few other countries across the globe.

iexclusive News Nigeria reports that barring any last-minute change, President Muhammadu Buhari plans to host Ramaphosa and other top government functionaries of his administration, who are already scheduled for a three-day visit to Nigeria between November 29 and December 1.

South Africa’s National Institute for Communicable Diseases had recently reported the discovery of a new strain of the Covid-19 virus with 22 positive cases already confirmed. It is of great concern that the percentage of individuals testing positive yo the new strain was “increasing quickly”.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) had declared the strain identified as B.1.1.529 as a “variant of concern” and named it “Omicron.”

The heavily-mutated new variant has so far been detected in South Africa, Botswana, Hong Kong and recently in the UK, Czech Republic, Italy, Germany, Netherlands, Belgium and Israel, sparking renewed global concern and a rush to ban travel in a bid to stop the spread

The Omicron strain is known to be a more contagious variant of the coronavirus.

This development has prompted the ban of travellers from Southern African countries by the 27-member European Union (EU), and the United States, Britain, Canada, Israel, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, and UAE.

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According to EU chief, Ursula Von der Leyen, EU’s executive “will propose, in close coordination with member states, to activate the emergency brake to stop air travel from the southern African region due to the variant of concern B.1.1.529”

The EU countries are: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Republic of Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, and Sweden.

The US and Canada also announced on Friday that it would be restricting travel from eight southern African countries over fears of the new variant, which some had expected to be named Nu but which has now been dubbed Omicron.

Travel would be mostly banned starting Monday (tomorrow) from South Africa, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Namibia, Lesotho, Eswatini, Mozambique, and Malawi, a senior official in President Joe Biden’s administration, had reportedly said

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However, only US citizens and permanent residents will still be able to travel from the eight countries.

The United Kingdom had also placed South Africa, Namibia, Lesotho, Botswana, Eswatini, and Zimbabwe on its red list, which means that direct flights from the six countries were banned from Friday until Sunday (today) at 4 am.

Passengers arriving from these countries from today, at 4 am, would have to book and pay for a government-approved hotel quarantine facility for 10 days.

Ramaphosa’s planned visit has raised concerns in Nigeria following the new strain of COVID-19.

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“What is the federal government’s dilemma over the visit? Is Nigeria going to receive the South African President and other officials when other countries are banning travellers from South Africa? Is the federal government going to tell them not to come? Under what structure are they going to come?” a top official of the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA) queried.

The visit will be President Ramaphosa’s first visit to Nigeria in his official capacity as the substantive president since he was elected some three years ago.

He had visited Nigeria in 2018, as the acting president, following the exit of former President Jacob Zuma from office.

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There are about 120 South African firms in Nigeria, including the telecommunication giant, MTN, DSTV whose parent company, Multichoice, remains the number one leading player in the cable TV ecosystem in the country.

Though only a few Nigerian firms are operating in South Africa, the possibility of Nigerians living in South Africa returning home to spend the Christmas holiday with friends and family is a major risk factor that the Buhari presidency needs to consider. It poses a great risk unless modalities are put in place to restrict and quarantine such individuals on arrival.