Africa-Press – Mozambique. The Mozambican Ministry of Health on Monday said it makes no sense to close borders because of the newly discovered “Omicron” variant of the coronavirus that causes the Covid-19 respiratory disease.
Speaking on the Radio Mozambique breakfast programme “Café de Manha”, the National Director of Public Health, Quinhas Fernandes, said there was no scientific justification for banning flights or closing borders over the Omicron variant.
“Mozambique has been very cautious and prudent in the measures it takes”, said Fernandes. “All the measures we have taken are guided by the scientific evidence. Right now we have no scientific evidence that supports these measures”.
Fernandes thought it important that Mozambique should step up its vigilance at all entry points, in attempts to detect anyone infected by the coronavirus. But he guaranteed that the scientific evidence currently available does not recommend the closing of borders.
The United States, members of the European Union, Britain, and Saudi Arabia are among the countries that have decided to suspend flights from seven southern African countries, including Mozambique. Angola, although it is a member of the Southern African Development Community (SADC), has also taken the extraordinary step of suspending its Luanda-Maputo flights.
This is all in the name of blocking the spread of the Omicron variant. But, although it was South African scientists who identified the variant, and analysed its genome, there is no evidence that Omicron originated in southern Africa – and even if there were, by now the variant has spread across the globe.
Fernandes said that countries ought to pay attention to international health protocols – and the World Health Organisation is not in favour of closing borders.
“In the final analysis, countries have enough sovereignty to take these measures”, he said. “But all these states are signatories to international health regulations. They should understand this, and above all, they should guide their decisions on the basis of the scientific evidence, and that evidence is not sufficient to support the measures they have taken”.
Fernandes said the best way to fight the Omicron variant is to step up the current vaccination campaigns. “There is no evidence that the new variant is immune to the current vaccines”, he added.
To date Mozambique has not detected any cases of the Omicron variant, but Fernandes assured his listeners that the country has the capacity to detect it. “This is not just a question of laboratory equipment”, he said, “but also of highly skilled human resources, trained in the best laboratories in the world”.
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