Flights to and from southern Africa suspended due to new Covid variant

Spain will suspend all flights to and from South Africa and Botswana from next Tuesday due to the emergence of the new strain of Covid-19, which has been named by the World Health Organisation as ‘Omicron.’

There are no direct flights between Barcelona and the southern African nations, but there are some flights via connections. 

The European Commission has also proposed that all European Union member states cancel air connections to and from the southern African countries. 

In a tweet, EC president Ursula von der Leyen said that the continental executive will recommend member states to pull the "emergency brake" and suspend flights due to the newly developing "worrying variant".

Friday also saw Belgium confirm the first case of the contagious new strain on the continent. 

The patient is an unvaccinated woman who travelled to Egypt from Belgium making a stopover in Turkey and who began to develop symptoms on November 22, eleven days after taking the flight, according to the virologist from the University of Leuven, Marc Van Ranst. 

The emergence of this new variant and new resulting restrictions across the continent has affected stock markets and indexes across Europe, which are suffering heavy losses.

Not a great deal is known about the new ‘Omicron’ variant of Covid-19 yet, other than it was first detected some two weeks ago in southern African countries and it appears to be highly contagious. 

The World Health Organization designated it as a “variant of concern” on Friday and stated that “preliminary evidence suggests an increased risk of reinfection with this variant.”