Summit of G7 ministers on the Omicron variant. The British government, which currently holds the presidency of the G7, called for a Monday emergency meeting of health ministers to discuss the new variant of Covid. The Guardian reports it. The G7 is made up of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States.
“Under the UK presidency, an urgent meeting of G7 health ministers will be convened on Monday 29 November to discuss developments on Omicron,” the Department of Health and Welfare said.
The World Health Organization calls for borders to be kept open. WHO “stands with African nations and asks that borders remain open” is the WHO appeal. “As countries impose flight bans on southern African nations due to concerns about the new variant of Covid Omicron, WHO urges countries to follow scientific and health regulations,” the World Health Organization stresses.
The president of South Africa calls for the lifting of travel restrictions. “We ask all those countries that have imposed travel bans on our country and on our sister countries in southern Africa to urgently reverse their decisions and lift the ban they have imposed before further damage is done to our economies and the livelihoods of our people, there is no scientific justification for keeping these restrictions in place” he claims the president of South Africa, Cyril Ramaphosa, according to South African media.
For Ramaphosa, travel restrictions “will not be effective in preventing the spread of this variant. It could only cause further damage to the economies of affected countries and undermine their ability to respond and recover from the pandemic.”
“The virus knows no borders. We will not be protected until everyone in the world is vaccinated“underlines the president of the ECB, Christine Lagarde, speaking at ‘Che Tempo che Fa’ on Rai 3, recalling the commitments made during the G20 summit in Rome. The pandemic “has taught us that we are all interdependent. If we are not all protected, all vaccinated, we will all be at risk”. The second lesson of the Covid emergency “is that we must put men and women first, even before the economy and finance, in the first place. Preserve wages and businesses. It was the great challenge of Covid-19”.