Mounting calls for SA to close borders with India

Calls are mounting for South Africa to close borders for Indian descendants due to the deadly coronavirus strain B.1617 wreaking havoc in the country.

The World Health Organisation on Monday announced the world had recorded more diagnoses of Covid-19 in the past two weeks than the first six months of the pandemic, with India and Brazil accounting for more than half of those numbers.

The EFF on Wednesday joined calls for the South African government to place restrictions on all travellers from and to India.

The party said that failure to do so was a blatant failure by the government to follow global trends of the virus and “act accordingly to protect life”.

“The lack of a response and necessary policy intervention to ensure the variant that exists in India does not spread in South Africa is no different from when they refused to utilise state resources to quarantine 11 passengers from Italy and opted to allow them to self-quarantine” the EFF said in a statement.

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The Department of Health on Wednesday announced South Africa remained on high alert with a heightened awareness of travellers from countries where the variants of concern (VOCs) are dominating.

“We confirm that the B.1.617 variant, circulating widely in India, has not been detected. However, the genomics teams are working on some samples and we will need to allow the time it takes to sequence before we get an answer,” Minister of Health Dr Zweli Mkhize said on Tuesday.

The EFF said it was concerning that in the past few days the country had seen alarming reports of passengers from India who  tested positive for Covid-19.

Three air travellers arrived from India, via Doha, through King Shaka International Airport in recent weeks. All those passengers remain in isolation after two of them showed symptoms and one took ill.

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Another incident was that of a death of a chief engineer onboard a vessel from India to Durban port.

The vessel had 21 crew members of which 14 tested positive for Covid-19.

Referring to a travel ban on descendants from neighboring Zimbabwe earlier this year, the EFF has blamed the lack of a ban on India as a reflection of hatred for African people

“It is clear that the closure of borders and points of entry are motivated by a hatred of African people and prioritising of international relations that are linked to profit rather than preservation of life,” reads the statement.