AS provincial authorities launch a bid to rescue tourism and the local economy after international travel bans dealt a severe blow to the struggling sector, health experts have warned of the high risk of domestic travel.
South Africa's new daily coronavirus cases have almost tripled in three days this week. By Friday, more than 39 500 people were infected, the National Institute for Communicable Diseases said.
On Friday, 16 055 new cases were registered, of which 11 553 were in Gauteng, followed by 957 in the Western Cape and 897 in KwaZulu-Natal.
"Omicron is probably the fastest-spreading variant that South Africa has ever seen," said Tulio de Oliveira, director of the Centre for Epidemic Response and Innovation at Stellenbosch University.
Although scientists are warning that it is still too early to say for sure that Omicron is behind the surge in cases, the rapid rise means Omicron might already be overtaking the Delta variant, experts said.
In the past week, more than 40 countries imposed bans on travel to Southern Africa, a move the Southern African Tourism Association (Satsa) said would cost South Africa more than a R1 billion in cancellations, and cost the Western Cape R237 million.
Tomorrow, the City’s Mayco Member for Economic Opportunities and Asset ManagementnJames Vos and Cape Town mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis will launch plan B – a focus on a domestic tourism campaign.
“Local travellers make up the bulk of visitors to Cape Town and are a pillar of strength for our industry,” Vos said.
A domestic survey by Cape Town Tourism (CTT), before the discovery of the Omicron variant, indicated that a majority of South Africans had a strong appetite for travelling these holidays. The survey showed 67% of the 1 728 respondents said they intended to travel over the festive season, a notable increase from the same period in 2020.
A previous impact report, showed that the last festive season lockdown restrictions resulted in a minimum of R2bn in financial losses and 11 583 jobs losses.
Director and Head of the School of Public Health & Family Medicine at the University of Cape Town, Landon Meyer, said the City had planned well before the recent travel restrictions to improve the economy.
“I would say it's just bad timing because realistically, two weeks ago, no-one would have imagined this happening. However, given what we know today, I would say it's not a great idea to go forward with these plans.”
Meyer said he also hoped the City emphasised the need to be vaccinated and to take full precaution when visiting the province.
“It will be negligent if unvaccinated people visited the city and end up filling our mortuaries or hospitals, because we will then have people from other provinces filling the bed space.”
Premier of the Western Cape, Allan Winde concurred with Meyer and said it was of utmost importance to take necessary precautions when visiting other provinces.
Winde said that the Western Cape has been preparing for the fourth wave.
“At the moment, we have a very low percentage of beds taken up in hospitals and our health care system is also fully geared. We’ve never stopped working, even in between waves.”
Winde also urged Capetonians and visitors to not become too relaxed in the silly season – and to get vaccinated.
“We welcome visitors into our City, but as citizens we should also look out and protect each other. This is a case of making sure people's lives and livelihoods are protected.
“This is a matter of balance between the two.”
South Africa's leading epidemiologist Dr Salim Abdool Karim told Weekend Argus that although he is not against interprovincial travel, he does urge people to do so responsibly.
Abdool Karim said that restricting interprovincial travel wouldn't make much of a meaningful impact on the already fast-spreading virus. President Cyril Ramaphosa’s announcement last Sunday of a task team to look into vaccine passports and mandatory vaccines was “a little too late”.
He said: "I believe the president should have just announced restrictions on indoor gatherings for those who were not vaccinated. The virus is also proving to be a fast-spreading. This would've been a practical thing to do."
Abdool Karim warned that "in the midst of an infection, you have to minimise interaction between people“.
Anne von Gottberg, a microbiologist at the NICD, said that the restrictions mean fewer ways for supplies to enter the country.
"There are fewer flights to choose from to bring in reagents, to bring in equipment, in addition to sending out specimens and isolates for people to be able to then work with Omicron," Reuters reported her as saying.
Restrictions have also thrown travel across Africa into disarray. Currently, there is a scramble to get people home on an ever-shrinking flight schedule between countries on the continent. Four countries have suspended travel to and from South Africa. They are Rwanda, Mauritius, Egypt and Angola.
Southern African regional airline, Airlink, has managed to put on a repatriation flight today between Angola's capital Luanda and Johannesburg. It's a once-off.
The 90-seater aircraft will ferry Angolans stuck in South Africa back home. And return with a plane-full of South Africans.
A company spokesperson said: "Airlink has applied to the Angolan authorities for permission to operate as many repatriation flights as necessary to help Angolans stranded in SA to Luanda and to carry South Africans back to Johannesburg. So far Airlink has been granted permission for (Sunday’s) flight. We are still waiting for authorisation to operate additional repatriation flights."
Customers have to pay their own way, and it's first-come first-served. By yesterday afternoon, there was one seat available on the Airlink flight to Luanda at a cost of $459 (R7 400).
Air Mauritius has also adapted their flight schedule based on travel restrictions imposed by authorities. The company put up five repatriation flights between Mauritius and Johannesburg. The last one is today.
The Department of International Relations and Co-operation said it could not confirm how many South Africans needed assistance in returning home from the various African countries affected by travel restrictions. Lunga Ngqengelele, spokesman for Minister Naledi Pandor, said: "We don't keep numbers of South Africans abroad."