U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres on Wednesday condemned travel bans imposed by dozens of countries on southern African nations that first detected the Omicron variant, blasting the restrictions as “travel apartheid.” Guterres noted the virus had already appeared in Europe before it was first detected in Africa, and is now in dozens of countries around the world. 

Secretary-General António Guterres: “The people of Africa cannot be blamed for the immorally low level of vaccinations available to them, nor should they be collectively punished for identifying and sharing crucial science and health information with the world. With a virus that is truly borderless, travel restrictions that isolate any one country or region are not only deeply unfair and punitive, they are ineffective.”