Abiad Reassures: No Direct Flights between Southern Africa, Lebanon

W300

Health Minister Firass Abiad has reassured that “Lebanon has no direct flights from South Africa or neighboring countries,” in remarks regarding the new, heavily mutated Covid-19 strain Omicron.

“Furthermore, very few passengers arrive from these destinations. All passengers arriving in Lebanon currently undergo PCR testing,” Abiad added, in an English-language tweet.

“Should a travel ban be imposed on passengers coming from those countries? This will be discussed by the Infectious Disease committee on Monday morning. This will allow our experts having discussions with

@WHOEMRO (World Health Organization Eastern Mediterranean Regional Office) to better understand and decide what measures should be taken,” Abiad stated.

World governments rushed to contain the new strain on Sunday, with Israel slamming its borders shut to foreign nationals and Australia reporting its first cases of the variant.

The variant has cast doubt on global efforts to fight the pandemic because of fears that it is highly infectious, forcing countries to reimpose measures many had hoped were a thing of the past.

Scientists are racing to determine the threat posed by the heavily mutated strain -- particularly whether it can evade existing vaccines.

Several countries have also announced plans to restrict travel from southern Africa, where it was first detected, including key travel hub Qatar, the United States, Britain, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the Netherlands.

SourceNaharnet