Lanka bans passengers from six Southern African countries

New measures after emergence of COVID-19 new variant Omicron; but SriLankan Airlines won't stop flights to Kenya

Sri Lanka clamped a ban from midnight yesterday on passengers with a 14-day travel history in several southern African nations from entering the country after the new variant of COVID- 19 mutant ‘ Omicron’ was detected in that region.

However, SriLankan Airlines will continue with its recently announced direct flights to Kenya, a spokesman for the airline told

the Sunday Times yesterday. He said the airline had not received instructions from the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) to cancel these flights.

CAA Director General Upul Dharmadasa said that as Kenya was not one of the six African countries from which passengers had been banned, they had not considered ordering the national carrier to cancel its flights to the continent.

The travel restrictions came with immediate effect since Health Services Director-General (DG) Dr. Asela Gunawardena on Friday barred travellers from South Africa, Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia, Zimbabwe and Eswatini (Swaziland). The restrictions also apply to those who have been in transit in those countries and will be operative until further notice.

Sri Lanka’s restrictions come hot on the heels of the World Health Organisation ( WHO) declaring Omicron (B.1.1.529) as a ‘Variant of Concern’.

All those 12 years and above who arrived in Sri Lanka from these countries, irrespective of their COVID-19 vaccination status, mandatorily will also have to undergo RT- PCR testing. If negative, they would have to undergo a mandatory 14- day quarantine as specified by the ministry. They would be discharged from quarantine only after a PCR/rapid antigen testing on Day 14 is negative.

Those who are symptomatic or have positive COVID- 19 test reports are to be managed as specified by the ministry.

The WHO has urged countries to enhance surveillance and sequencing efforts to better understand circulating SARSCoV- 2 variants, reminding individuals to take proven health and social measure to reduce their risk of COVID-19.

With an increase in infections being seen in South Africa in recent weeks, Omicron had first been reported to the WHO from there on November 24.

“This variant has a large number of mutations, some of which are concerning. Preliminary evidence suggests an increased risk of reinfection with this variant, as compared to other Variants of Concern,” the WHO said, explaining that several labs have indicated that for one widely used PCR test, one of the three target genes is not detected. It is called S gene dropout or S gene target failure.

The WHO added: “This test can, therefore, be used as marker for this variant, pending sequencing confirmation. Using this approach, this variant has been detected at faster rates than previous surges in infection, suggesting that this variant may have a growth advantage.”

Sri Lanka should “act right now” to preempt the possibly very highly transmissible ‘Omicron’ variant (B.1.1.529) from getting a stranglehold in the country, a scientist strongly urged on Friday.

“We need to act very fast and use the ‘window of opportunity’ to cover as many people as possible with the booster vaccination to prevent the impact that this new variant could cause,” reiterated Prof. Neelika Malavige, Head of the Department of Immunology and Molecular Medicine, University of Sri Jayewardenepura.

She said that the need of the hour is to “buy time” to rollout the boosters quickly. “We have a window of opportunity. We need to proactively give out the boosters and protect the people by throwing a safety net to buy a little time.”

These warnings came as there were ripples of serious concern over the newly-detected COVID-19 mutant. Around 66 confirmed infections were identified in South Africa, Botswana and Hong Kong and several countries such as the United Kingdom implemented border controls to prevent the variant from sneaking in.

Concerns have heightened after the South African Centre for Epidemic Response and Innovation declared this week that the variant has an unusually high number of mutations, with more than 32 in the key spike protein and is spreading very fast.

It is too early to see the extent to which these mutations could evade natural immunity, escape vaccine efficacy and have enhanced transmissibility, the centre said.

“Current data from South Africa and Botswana seem to be pointing in the direction of the new variant being more transmissible than Delta,” stressed Prof. Malavige, explaining that to aggravate matters it also seems as if there are particular mutations which could possibly help the variant to evade both vaccine and natural-infection induced immunity.

Comparing and contrasting variants, she said that Alpha, Beta, Gamma and Delta are called ‘Variants of Concern’ because of the devastation they caused. Although there was concern regarding Lambda, Epsilon and Mu, they did not cause so much impact. This new variant, however, is causing much concern because initial data seem to be showing that there is a “real threat” of it being something “very nasty”. She explained that although Delta was more transmissible, there was less immune evasion. Immune evasion from Beta, meanwhile, was significantly more but it was less transmissible than Delta. Dangerously, with this new variant, however, there seems to be a ‘ double whammy’ – more transmissibility and immunity evasion.

There is consolation when Prof. Malavige points out that although people can possibly get re-infected due to this new variant evading immunity (both from natural infection and vaccination), they are unlikely to get severe disease if their immunity against COVID-19 is further strengthened by a booster.

Looking at border control measures such as travel bans by countries to prevent the new variant from getting in, she says that such action would obviously delay it, but past experiences have shown that it may not be possible to halt its onslaught. If it is very transmissible, it will come in and stopping its entry will be difficult, as all countries have learnt with other variants.

When asked whether the new variant has come to Sri Lanka, Prof. Malavige said: “Hopefully, no.”

However, she urged that as there is a time-lag between a virus being present in the community and it being detected, it is “extremely” important for everybody to ramp up genetic sequencing so that the country can “catch” or detect its arrival early.

“It is a good thing that unlike other countries in Asia, Sri Lanka is administering the booster to further boost people’s immunity. Data have proven that such boosting of immunity helps to lessen the impact even if a variant comes in,” she added.