Kenya on alert for South African variant.
Following certification of the new variant of the coronavirus discovered in southern African countries,
the Kenyan government has announced that, while not closing the corridors with South Africa and the other six countries considered to be hotbeds of this new evolution of the virus, which appears to be highly contagious and resistant to commercial vaccines, it will carry out special inbound and outbound screening for all passengers traveling on the route to Namibia, Lesotho, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Eswatini and the Asian state of Hong Kong. For them, the quarantine requirement is reactivated on entry.
All this is also to prevent the danger of being considered one of the African states at risk and endangering travel with western nations that are still open to Kenya and vice versa.
"Passenger air traffic between Kenya and South Africa is significant and therefore the potential for introduction of the virus variant is a real threat - said National Health Operations Director Patrick Amoth - this can, however, already be mitigated by the measures taken in South Africa to control transmission rates. So there will be increased outbound screening and effective inbound screening in Kenya at all entry points used by passengers from affected countries."
Meanwhile, stances and possible guidelines are awaited from the World Health Organization. With regard to travel from Europe and consequently also from Italy, the president of the European Commission Ursula Von Der Leyen was clear: it will close the air traffic to all countries that will have cases of variant South African, until it is certain the incidence or otherwise of existing vaccines on the virus B.1.1.529.
What are the risks for Italians in Kenya?
The most feared are those of seeing blocked the return flights, obviously not immediately but possibly after a period in which presumably will be extended quarantine in entry and will be performed swabs in arrival and later, even to holders of Green Pass.
A scenario that we hope not to have to see applied but that is already leading in the last hours to renunciations by those who were thinking of spending the Christmas vacations in Kenya, having the possibility not as simple tourists.
The situation is clearly evolving, but controls to and from Africa will certainly be strengthened even when departing from Italy, especially for those who do not have valid reasons for traveling to a country that, because it is close to those holding the variant, is not catalogued as "safe".
We are waiting for the developments and hope that Kenya, as happened in the past with other variants and as is happening with the "basic" versions of Covid-19, will be able to be exempt.
But from experience we also know that when it comes to the African continent, there is a tendency to lump everything together.