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Just as we were about to dip our toes into the holiday season, COVID-19 strikes again, making travel plans unravel at the seams.

The news about the new COVID-19 variant B.1.1.529 being detected in South Africa has put Saffas back on numerous travel red lists.

The UK sent out the alert first, with a few other countries soon following suit.

Israel, Singapore, Germany, and Japan have proposed their own bans on travellers coming from South Africa.

The ban has also been put on South Africa’s neighbouring countries: Botswana, Lesotho, Eswatini, Zimbabwe, and Namibia.

India, too, is advising all states to thoroughly test and screen travellers coming from South Africa and other “at-risk” countries.

Italy announced earlier today that it’s imposing an entry ban on people who have visited South Africa in the last 14 days.

Meanwhile, Australia and New Zealand are waiting to see what officials think the new variant will mean exactly for their travel restrictions.

The situation is changing rapidly as more countries react – you can keep up to speed with the latest here.

South Africa’s Department of Health and scientists from the Network for Genomic Surveillance announced the detection of the B.1.1.529 variant on Thursday, Business Insider SA reported.

The variant has also apparently been found in Botswana and Hong Kong and is a highly mutated version of the virus.

This is a major concern as authorities fear that a new wave of cases could end up putting more pressure on an already strained healthcare system in South Africa and abroad.

BusinessTech reports that scientists are still trying to figure out if this new variant is more transmissible or more lethal than previous ones.

This is important information:

The @nicd_sa has just shared this very valuable FAQ around the newly discovered variant. Please take the time to read it. Let’s not panic – vaccines and NPIs are still our best weapons. More will be known soon. @TeamNews24 pic.twitter.com/uYIIrBAmFF

— Kyle Cowan (@CowansView) November 26, 2021

Many have criticised the UK’s decision as a “kneejerk” reaction, particularly the Association of Southern African Travel Agents (ASATA) and the Department of International Relations and Cooperation (DIRCO).

The UK’s travel ban will include strict quarantine requirements for returning residents, and no entry at all for non-UK and non-Irish residents who have been in South Africa, or neighbouring countries, in the previous 10 days.

And so the ban begins:

From 04:00 on Sunday, passengers arriving in the UK will need to quarantine in a state-managed hotel, at their own cost. This is the same red list requirement which decimated South Africa’s tourism sector.

Skyscanner’s mapping tool shows that South Africa is currently barred from 78 countries with “major restrictions” for international travel in place.

It will be updated as other countries decide which measures they will put in place.

[sources:businessinsider&bloomberg&businesstech]