Omicron panic, stigma worry Botswana
Mompati Tlhankane | Monday December 6, 2021 06:00
At the conclusion of their mission in Botswana, the quartet tested positive for COVID-19 after conducting their pre-travel tests. Their COVID-19 variant was confirmed as B 1. 1. 529 on November 24, 2021, and has been renamed Omicron.
Now the panic fever has reached many countries across the world consequently imposing travel bans and restrictions on Southern African countries including Botswana.
The response by some countries to the detection of the Omicron variant has caused unnecessary panic amongst the public across the world. Botswana as a country affected by the latest travel ban has an uphill battle as the damage seems irreversible because already countries like the United States, Japan and Malaysia have announced tighter travel restrictions in an attempt to slow the spread of Omicron.
Due to the situation, President Mokgweetsi Masisi is already a worried man and has gone out to publicly chide countries that are causing panic with travel bans. During his televised address on Wednesday, Masisi said the travel ban defeats the spirit of multilateral cooperation in dealing with this global pandemic.
“The decision to ban our citizens from travelling to certain countries was hastily made and is not only unfair but is also unjustified while we remain confident that reason and logic will prevail, the harshness of the decision has effect on our belief in the sincerity of declared friendship and commitment of equality and economic prosperity for us,” he said.
Masisi troublingly revealed that Botswana cannot promote global inequality because others announce the travel bans on them. While the knee-jerk response by these countries followed the news that the variant had an unusually high number of mutations, Masisi said he hoped those who made the decision to reflect and review their travel restrictions stance against the Southern African region.
Most countries have already registered their first cases, but the panic surrounding the variant has triggered a wave of resentment on the African continent. The panic has prompted some to question the need for the cascading travel restrictions. The World Health Organisation (WHO) said “blanket travel bans will not prevent the international spread, and they place a heavy burden on lives and livelihoods”. WHO has cautioned against travel bans that will have “very negative consequences” for economies and people’s livelihoods.
Even though United States is amongst the countries that have imposed travel restrictions, the country’s President Joe Biden on Monday said the strain should be considered a “cause for concern, not a cause for panic”.
Biden said top US health officials are consulting with leading vaccine makers and preparing for possible updates to account for Omicron’s mutations. In Botswana, Masisi said following the discovery of the new variant, they are carefully monitoring all their key COVID-19 pandemic indicators as prescribed in their national response plan such as flu clinic visits, COVID-19 hospitalisation rate, laboratory positivity rate, disease burden per 100,000 persons, and isolation bed occupancy. Masisi assured Batswana that despite the panic in some countries that new information on the Omicron variant will be shared with the public as the government gain more knowledge about it. “For now, we are able to identify and track it- but very little is known about it,” he further indicated.
Much is still unknown about Omicron, including its origins, severity and transmissibility. Researchers are also racing against time to discover if it could displace existing variants and become dominant, as Delta did. Scientists say it may take weeks to unearth how dangerous the new variant is.
Local COVID-19 cases have not drastically gone up since the news of the discovery of the variant last week. Assistant minister of Health and Wellness, Sethomo Lelatisitswe told Parliament this week that further assessments and analysis of other positive COVID-19 samples have up to now produced 15 more cases of the new variant. This means that to date Botswana has recorded a total of 19 cases of Omicron.
Lelatisitswe was however, worried that following the detection of the new variant in Botswana and also in other African countries, many reports began to label the variant as a ‘Botswana variant’ which is contrary to the position taken by WHO to give variants neutral names that do not stigmatise any country or people.
“We therefore, advise that people should not panic but should remain vigilant and follow COVID-19 protocols at all times. I further wish to appeal to all Batswana and residents of this country to only trust information coming from official sources,” he highlighted.
Lelatisitswe said this after the Minister of Health and Wellness, Dr Edwin Dikoloti on Sunday expressed concern about the new variant termed “the Botswana Variant,” by certain reports. Dikoloti who was addressing the media alongside International Affairs and Cooperation minister Dr Lemogang Kwape and minister of Local Government and Rural Development Eric Molale emphasised that the detection of the Omicron variant should not be confused with Botswana being the country of origin of the strain.
Dikoloti also stressed the need to eschew geo-politicisation of the virus saying it was not going to help the world in anyway other than stigmatising countries.
“WHO is against using the names of countries to label coronavirus variants as this leads to unnecessary stigmatisation of such states. Such stigmatisation had led to the current red-listing of Botswana, which portended a very difficult situation for the country. I am expecting one to two million vaccines before the end of this year. In fact 500,000 doses were supposed to arrive here on Monday. What this red-listing will do is cause havoc,” he worryingly said.
Dikoloti said instead of being eager to red-list African countries, the West should allow African countries to manufacture vaccines and have a better fighting chance.
The panic and stigma is not about to go away anytime soon, so scientists have indicated that it will take weeks of testing to tell how dangerous these mutations make Omicron. Researchers are already testing samples taken from patients to observe what infections Omicron is causing. Scientists will also explore whether fully vaccinated people might end up being infected with the Omicron variant.