COVID-19 | Omicron: Shutting borders will not stop ‘invisible enemy’, need to analyse data, says Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw

Biocon Chairperson Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw

Biocon Chairperson Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw has said that travel bans would not necessarily work against containing spread of COVID-19 amid emergence of a new variant Omicron, which was identified in South Africa.

“Do we really think we can stop the spread with travel bans?  We need to analyse data wrt severity of disease n effect of vaccination. Testing is important but shutting borders will not stop entry of an invisible enemy!” (sic) she tweeted on December 2.

Do we really think we can stop the spread with travel bans? We need to analyse data wrt severity of disease n effect of vaccination. Testing is important but shutting borders will not stop entry of an invisible enemy! pic.twitter.com/AkXTdvhuM8

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— Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw (@kiranshaw) December 2, 2021

Mazumdar-Shaw’s thoughts echo the opinion of the World Health Organisation (WHO), who also said that countries’ travel bans are having an impact on global cooperation against Omicron. On December 1 during its first press briefing since naming the new variant, WHO also said the bans are causing challenges to sharing of laboratory samples from South Africa that can help get better grips on the new variant, AP reported.

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus called for tailored intervention by countries, including testing travellers before and after they arrive in a country, and advised against blanket travel bans that place a heavy burden on lives and livelihoods.

Maria Van Kerkhove, WHO's technical lead on COVID-19, said international cooperation was continuing, and that researchers in South Africa have been very willing to not only share data, not only share information, but also share samples.

But she said travel bans have caused some challenges for those samples to actually be shipped out of the country. So, there are other implications for these travel bans that are out there.

(With inputs from AP)