The World Health Organization says travel bans by countries are having an impact on global cooperation against the new omicron variant by causing “challenges” to the sharing of laboratory samples from South Africa that can help get better grips on the new variant.
The comments Wednesday came at the first press briefing by the U.N. health agency since it christened omicron as a “variant of concern” after being brought to light by researchers in South Africa last week. Many countries responded by suspending flights from seven southern Africa countries.
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WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus called for “tailored” intervention by countries, including testing travelers before and after they arrive in a country, and advised against “blanket travel bans” that “place a heavy burden on lives and livelihoods.”
Maria Van Kerkhove, WHO’s technical lead on COVID-19, said international cooperation was continuing, and that researchers in South Africa have been “very willing to not only share data, not only share information, but also share samples.”
But she said travel bans “have caused some challenges for those samples to actually be shipped out of the country. So, there are other implications for these travel bans that are out there.”