South African President call on all countries to lift travel bans imposed because of Omicron variant

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa asked all countries to "urgently" reverse "scientifically unjustified" travel restrictions associated with the discovery of a new variant of the coronavirus. His comments came Sunday as the highly mutated variant - called Omicron - continued to spread worldwide, with new cases identified in the Netherlands, Denmark and Australia.

Dozens of countries have banned South Africa and its neighbours since South African scientists discovered the new variant last week. The World Health Organization (WHO) described Omicron as a "variant of concern" which is potentially more contagious than previous variants.

"We call on all those countries that have imposed travel bans on our country and our South African sister countries to take back their decisions immediately and urgently," Ramaphosa stated in his first address to the nation since the Omicron detection.

"The travel ban is not proposed by science," he added.

"The only thing that the travel ban will do is continue to harm the economies of the countries concerned and undermine their ability to respond to and recover from the pandemic," he added.

"These restrictions are unjustified and unfairly discriminate against our country and our South African sister countries."

The abruption flight of flights terrified South Africa's vital tourism industry, with booking cancellations going up immediately after the announcement. The country's tourism sector lost $ 10 billion in bookings in 2020 due to a decline in foreign visitors and is estimated to lose about $ 10 million each week. Flights are suspended from key overseas tourist markets.