By Yossi Schwartz, ISL (RCIT in Israel/Palestine), 30.11.2021
We know very little about the qualities of the new strain of the Covid named Omicron discovered by scientists in South Africa. Cases of these variants have been discovered in other countries with no flight to South Africa. We do not know who was the first person to be infected by the Omicron.
In Australia the Australian health department has detected the Covid Omicron strain in two passengers in Sydney. Both passengers came from southern Africa and arrived in Australia on a Qatar Airways flight via Doha. On the same flight there were 12 passengers from South Africa who did not test positive for Covid but had been placed in quarantine.
The Dutch health authorities have said that they have detected 61 Covid-19 cases among people who flew from South Africa on Friday and believe at least some infections are of the new omicron variant.
The most interesting case is Hong Kong. Hong Kong has said that three Omicron variant cases were discovered and tightened entry rules for countries from the southern part of Africa. The third case is from Nigeria. The man, who had not shown any symptoms, was undergoing quarantine at the Ramada Hong Kong Grand View hotel in the North Point before a sample collected on the third day after arrival tested positive for Covid-19. The three will be quarantined until they have recovered. They will spend their first seven days at Penny’s Bay Quarantine Centre, which was designed for the higher-risk close contacts, and they would be subject to daily testing. They would then spend their remaining 14 days of quarantine in a designated hotel. Thus, they will be isolated for 21 days. However, “According to the current guidelines, crew members returning to Hong Kong from southern Africa can be exempted from quarantine if they test negative at the airport” [1]
The immediate reaction of the Zionist state and other countries: Qatar, the United States, Britain, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the Netherlands, has been to impose travel bans on South Africa and other southern African states.
What we know so far is that it infects more people faster. 1,600 new cases recorded on average in the past seven days in South Africa compared to 500 the previous week. However, in June 2021 there were close to 20,000 new cases per week.
But is it a stronger or a weaker strain? Is its appearance indicating a higher level of its development or the decline of the Covid? How does it affect the people who were vaccinated?
Dr Angelique Coetzee, who first spotted the new COVID-19 variant in South Africa, says that so far, people infected with Omicron have very mild symptoms, especially those who received the inoculation after August mostly they are only more tired.
We assume that the vaccination helps. Yet the contradictions of the capitalist system prevent the equal distribution of the vaccinations. The chief of the World Health Organization Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus criticized the inequitable distribution of vaccines, adding that access to vaccinations for all countries was necessary to limit the spread of the virus and its mutations. For example, only 28.4% of the Palestinians are vaccinated while 62.4% in Israel are.
Judging by the policies of the capitalists who have used the Covid to cover up for their major economic crisis and impose Bonapartist regimes, the imperialists are using South Africa as a scapegoat in order to enforce more draconian measures. During the Spanish flu plague when the imperialists closed their borders more people died because the weaker nations were isolated and did not receive the needed medical care.
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa called on countries to reverse “scientifically unjustified” travel bans linked to the discovery of the new highly-mutated coronavirus variant Omicron. “The only thing the prohibition on travel will do is to further damage the economies of the affected countries and undermine their ability to respond to, and recover from, the pandemic,” he added” [2]
WHO’s regional director for Africa, Matshidiso Moeti said: “The speed and transparency of the South African and Botswana governments in informing the world of the new variant is to be commended, WHO stands with African countries which had the courage to boldly share life-saving public health information, helping protect the world against the spread of COVID-19.” [3]
Endnotes:
[1] https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/health-environment/article/3157656/coronavirus-hong-kong-omicron-variant-must-be
[2] https://www.timesofisrael.com/south-africa-who-urge-reversal-of-travel-bans-as-world-scrambles-to-contain-omicron/
[3] https://www.pbs.org/newshour/health/who-criticizes-travel-bans-on-southern-african-countries