Rwanda’s national carrier has suspended its flights to South Africa and Zimbabwe in order to contain the spread of a new coronavirus variant.
This comes almost two months after authorities in South Africa announced the detection of a new variant of Covid-19 that was rapidly spreading in its provinces.
“In view of the global concerns on Covid variants prevalent throughout southern Africa, RwandAir announces the suspension of its flights to Johannesburg, Cape Town, Lusaka and Harare, effective 8 February 2021,” a RwandAir statement released on Monday reads.
“Scheduled flights will resume as soon as there is more clarity on the situation. We sincerely apologise for the inconvenience caused. Affected customers can rebook and fly at a later date at no additional cost – or request a refund.”
The UK on January 29 added Rwanda, Burundi, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to its coronavirus travel ban list fearing that the coronavirus variant had spread to these countries from southern Africa.
UK officials said that the decision to expand its travel ban to Rwanda was recommended by UK scientists, due to Rwanda’s limited gene sequencing testing capacity.
Source: By IVAN R. MUGISHA– East African
