Countries around the world tighten travel restrictions due to omicron

Countries around the world are tightening travel restrictions as they prepare for the worst with the COVID-19 omicron variant.

After being discovered in Africa last week, the omicron variant has spread throughout the world. The World Health Organization (WHO) reported that 24 countries have reported cases of the variant. Ghana, Nigeria, Norway, Saudi Arabia and South Korea are the latest countries to report the variant.

Around 56 countries have implemented travel measures in hopes to delay the spread of the variant. Many countries have banned flights coming from Botswana, Eswatini, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Tanzania and Zimbabwe.

The United States and Canada have restricted entry to all foreign nationals who have been in a southern African country.

Some countries, such as Malaysia, applied travel bans to all of the countries that have reported omicron cases or are considered high-risk.

Other countries are imposing stricter restrictions, barring the entry to all foreign travelers, including Japan, Morocco and Israel.

Scientists are still determining how easily the virus can spread, the severity of the illness and whether it can evade vaccines.

"Blanket travel bans will not prevent the international spread and they place a heavy burden on lives and livelihoods," the WHO said.

"In addition, they can adversely impact global health efforts...by disincentivising countries to report and share epidemiological and sequencing data," it added.

Instead, countries should apply “an evidence-informed and risk-based approach.” said WHO.