Covid-19: Angola shuts borders with 7 countries in southern Africa
Monday November 29 2021
A Red Cross van transporting passengers of flights from South Africa who have tested positive for Covid-19 drives to a hotel where they will be quarantined on November 27, 2021, at Amsterdam's Schiphol airport. PHOTO | AFP
Angola government has Saturday shut its borders with seven southern African countries to curb the spread new Covid-19 variant.
The countries which are members of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) are South Africa, Botswana, eSwatini, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia and Zimbabwe.
Angola has so far recorded 65,130 Covid-19 cases, 63,183 recoveries, 1,733 deaths.
According to the country´s Minister of State and Head of presidential staff Adão de Almeida, the measure will be effective from December 1.
“The decision does not cover Angolan citizens who may return to the country, however, they will be required to observe a 14-day quarantine at home,” said Mr de Almeida. He added that from January 1, 2022, flights from India will resume to the country.
Angolan government’s move comes after South African scientists detected a new Covid-19 ‘super-variant’ with multiple mutations.
At least 1,000 cases have been found in greater Johannesburg and surrounding areas in Gauteng province in about a week, but internationally. At least four cases have been detected in Botswana.
On Thursday, the UK´s Health Secretary Sajid Javid announced that from noon Friday, South Africa, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Lesotho and eSwatini would be added to the travel red list and flights from those countries would be temporarily banned due to growing concern over a newly discovered coronavirus variant.
On Friday, Austria, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal and the US among others joined the UK in restricting flights from the SADC.