South Africans 'devastated' by travel restrictions in response to omicron variant
CBC
George Qua-Enoo is wondering when he will next be able to visit his kids.
The photographer, who was based in Hamilton for years, moved to South Africa about a month ago.
Now, with concern spreading about the omicron variant of coronavirus and countries, including Canada, shutting down international flights, he's worried about whether he'll be able to continue working and how long those restrictions could keep him from travelling back.
"Maybe by February, March I can come back to Canada to visit people, but who knows?" he said during a Zoom call from his new home in Pretoria on Sunday.
Qua-Enoo pointed out that the variant, which the World Health Organization has labelled as a variant of concern, may have been identified in South Africa but it's since been confirmed in countries around the world.
Still, "Africans are getting the heavy-handed part of it," he said.
"A lot of people are devastated about those restrictions. They're very disappointed. They're angry, I would say."
Dr. Zain Chagla, an infectious disease physician at St. Joseph's Healthcare Hamilton, shared a similar sentiment during an interview with CBC's The Sunday Magazine.
South Africa discovered omicron, mapped out what was happening in a few days and alerted the world community, he told host Piya Chattopadhyay.
"And their reward is essentially being shut out of the world, having their travellers stuck in limbo, having supply chains cut off basically," said the doctor, adding the reaction could have consequences.
"It's going to discourage other places in the world to then say 'We're going to share our data.'"
Little is known about the omicron variant at this point.
It's going to take a week or two to complete lab studies that will indicate how protective the existing vaccines are against it and to start to understand how exactly this variant is different, said Chagla.
"There's been a lot of speculation at this point, but there's been no real data out there," he said.