Omicron: IATA demands reversal of travel ban on Nigeria, South Africa, others
By Tobi Adetunji
The International Air Transport Association (IATA) has asked governments to follow the advice of the World Health Organization (WHO) and immediately rescind travel bans that were placed on Nigeria, South Africa and others.
This was disclosed by the global aviation body in a statemet made available to Nigerian NewsDirect.
According to IATA, public health organizations, including the WHO, have advised against travel curbs to contain the spread of Omicron.
It stated, “WHO advice for international traffic in relation to the SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant states that blanket travel bans will not prevent the international spread, and they place a heavy burden on lives and livelihoods. In addition, they can adversely impact global health efforts during a pandemic by disincentivizing countries to report and share epidemiological and sequencing data.
“All countries should ensure that the measures are regularly reviewed and updated when new evidence becomes available on the epidemiological and clinical characteristics of Omicron or any other variants of concern.”
According to IATA Director-General, Willie Walsh, “Implementing measures such as screening or quarantine need to be defined following a thorough risk assessment process informed by the local epidemiology in departure and destination countries and by the health system and public health capacities in the countries of departure, transit and arrival. All measures should be commensurate with the risk, time-limited and applied with respect to travelers’ dignity, human rights and fundamental freedoms, as outlined in the International Health Regulations.
“After nearly two years with COVID-19, we know a lot about the virus and the inability of travel restrictions to control its spread. But the discovery of the Omicron variant induced instant amnesia on governments which implemented knee-jerk restrictions in complete contravention of advice from the WHO—the global expert.”
IATA urges governments to reconsider all Omicron measures. “The goal is to move away from the uncoordinated, evidence absent, risk-unassessed mess that travelers face. As governments agreed at ICAO and in line with the WHO advice, all measures should be time-bound and regularly reviewed. It is unacceptable that rushed decisions have created fear and uncertainty among travelers just as many are about to embark on year-end visits to family or hard-earned vacations,” added Walsh.
The industry demands governments to implement commitments that they have made through ICAO.
“We also commit to a multilayer risk management strategy for international civil aviation, which is adaptable, proportionate, non-discriminatory and guided by scientific evidence in close cooperation and coordination with the public health sector, with agreed practices harmonized to the greatest extent possible, for air travel purposes, using commonly accepted epidemiological criteria, testing requirements and vaccination, and underpinned by regular review, monitoring and timely information-sharing among States,” ICAO HLCC Ministerial Declaration.
“Despite this clear commitment, very few governments have addressed early over-reactions to Omicron. With the European CDC already signaling that a de-escalation of measures will likely be needed in the coming weeks, governments must urgently put actions behind the commitments that they made at ICAO,” Walsh added.
Recall that recently, the AfDB President, Dr Akinwumi Adesina, lamented the travel restrictions placed on some African countries over the new COVID-19 Omicron variant, describing the action as very unfair, non-scientific and discriminatory.
While urging the western countries to lift the ban, Adesina raised questions over why the travel ban was not placed on non-African countries where Omicron had also been discovered but ended up singling out African countries.
