Luanda -The Angolan authorities announced Saturday the suspension of flights to South Africa, Namibia, Botswana, Lesotho, Zimbabwe, Eswatini and Tanzania, to deal with the new variant that appeared in these countries.
This is the Omicron variant identified in South Africa as B.1.1.529.
Omicron joins variants Beta (first detected in South Africa), Gama (Brazil) and Delta (India), which were already classified as variants of concern, the highest level of alert.
According to the Minister of State and Head of the Military House of the President of the Republic, Francisco Pereira Furtado, who was speaking at a press conference to update the preventive measures against Covid-19, the aim is to avoid the circulation of this variant in Angola, because it is more lethal and spreads quickly.
The official said that the measure would come into force as of midnight this Sunday, as part of the updating of the measures to prevent and combat Covid-19.
The measure, he stressed, will be in force until January 5, 2022.