A public health expert says it would be premature for Jamaica to ban or restrict travel to and from southern Africa at this time despite the emergence of a new variant of covid-19 which has caused global alarm.
Head of the School of Public Health at UTECH, Dr. Kevin Harvey, says Jamaican authorities should not react hastily based on preliminary information on the variant.
However, he also called for an increase in surveillance locally for the new variant.
Omicron has been designated a variant of concern by the World Health Organization (WHO.).
Grenada yesterday became the first CARICOM country to impose a ban on passengers from several countries in Southern Africa as a result of the new covid-19 variant - they are Botswana, Eswatini (formerly Swaziland), Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa and Zimbabwe.
Earlier today, the Government of Trinidad and Tobago also imposed a travel ban on nationals from the same countries.
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