Following go well with with nations round Asia and around the globe, Malaysia has announced a brief ban on travellers getting into from African international locations in shut proximity to the Omicron Covid-19 variant. Malaysia’s health minister introduced the ban on eight African international locations including South Africa, Malawi, Mozambique, and Zimbabwe, though it hasn’t banned different countries which have reported circumstances of Omicron yet.
The Omicron virus was first detected in South Africa with officials there stressing that it’s probably because of the countries superior viral research labs, although recent stories of infections in the Netherlands practically 2 weeks in the past counsel that Omicron was floating round Europe previous to African detection.
Still, many nations are specializing in locking down flights from the southern international locations in Africa, though Thailand’s neighbour to the south will think about bans on international locations just like the UK and the Netherlands which have Omicron infections as properly. The health minister of Malaysia assures that each one measures taken are short-term only until it’s deemed secure once more.
“These are simply temporary measures till we discover out more concerning the Omicron variant. The second we believe it is secure, we are going to carry these measures.”
Malaysian nationals getting back from any of those nations might be required to quarantine upon return from any of these countries, whether or not they are vaccinated. A plan that was launching Vaccinated Travel Lanes in Malaysia – secure routes where vacationers could travel quarantine free – will now be delayed additionally. A VTL had simply launched a few days in the past between Malaysia and Singapore to the south after nearly 2 years of closed borders.
Steal has been a huge setback for the reopening of tourism all over the world, and Malaysia is no exception. Borders had been reopening in Malaysia over the previous few weeks, now that Covid-19 has slowed after 2.6 million reported infections within the nation. Malaysia has achieved excessive vaccination rates that were paying off as tourism was relaunching, but Omicron has thrown a wrench within the restoration..