TOP NEWS: SA, UK experts meet over Covid-19 after UK red listing

(Alliance News) - South African scientists met their UK counterparts on Monday to discuss the ...

Alliance News 27 September, 2021 | 7:16PM
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(Alliance News) - South African scientists met their UK counterparts on Monday to discuss the state of Covid-19 in South Africa more than a week after the UK placed South Africa on "red list" of its new travel curbs.

These new travel measures make it expensive for UK travellers to visit one of Africa's top tourism destination, weighing heavily on the local tourism industry.

The UK cited the B.1.351 variant of coronavirus, also known as the Beta strain, for imposing travel restrictions on arrivals from South Africa to the UK. While this mutant first found in South Africa was once dominant, it has been replaced by the highly transmittable Delta variant.

The meeting of scientists comes as South Africa exits the third wave of Covid-19 nationally, the National Institute for Communicable Diseases confirmed on Sunday last night.

In a statement late on Monday, the local health department said: "The UK and SA are both leading scientific nations and the meeting was initiated by the UK High Commission and South African government to ensure the most up-to-date and accurate sharing of information."

The insights provided will feed into the next review of UK border measures, which is due to take place within the next fortnight.

UK's new rules will add to South African tourism industry's woes. The local industry is reeling from coronavirus-induced lockdown restrictions and travel bans.

Foreign arrivals plunged 71% to 5.0 million in 2020 from just over 15.8 million in 2019, indicating that the Covid-19 pandemic had impacted the tourism industry hard around the world and in South Africa, according to Statistics South Africa.

The UK is one of top five overseas countries with the largest number of tourists visiting South Africa. In 2020, tourists from the UK topped the overseas visitor list, according to Statistics South Africa.

The red listing means that UK travellers to South Africa will have to quarantined for 10 days before being allowed to enter the UK at the cost of over GBP2,000, or around ZAR40,000, per adult.

By Artwell Dlamini; artwelldlamini@alliancenews.com

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