Malawi bans travel to India, Brazil due to rise in Covid-19 cases in south east Asia

Malawi has banned non essential travel to south east Asia due to the high number of Covid-19 recorded in the area in the passed days.

RUSTENBURG, April 27 (ANA) – Malawi has imposed a travel ban to south eastern countries in a bid to cut the threat of the new Covid-19 variant from the Indian sub-continent spreading, Health Minister Khumbize Kandodo Chiponda said.

“To guard against the threat of importation and spread of the new variant from the Indian sub-continent in the country, the taskforce has therefore resolved to ban with immediate effect, all but essential arrivals and travel, such as diplomatic and medical travel, of nationals or non-nationals from these three south eastern Asian countries, namely, Bangladesh, India and Pakistan, that have resided in these countries for at least the previous seven days.

“The same restriction is also extended to Brazil,” she said in a statement on Monday night.

She said those undertaking essential travel to and from these countries, would be subjected to mandatory institutional quarantine at designated hotel accommodation at their own cost on arrival into the country.

In addition, they must be in possession of a negative Covid-19 test result or certificate for a test conducted no more than 72 hours before arrival in Malawi.

“The Task Force will periodically review the situation of the epidemic in south east Asia and advise accordingly.”

In a statement posted on the ministry of health social media platforms on Monday night, she said travel the Presidential taskforce on Covid-19 noted with concern the threat of importation of new variants of the coronavirus from Bangladesh, Brazil, India, and Pakistan, where a new wave of the pandemic was currently spreading with severe morbidity and mortality impact.

She said there was heavy traffic of travellers to and from the Indian sub-continent and neighbouring countries of Bangladesh and Pakistan, and in the past week, a person travelling from India tested positive on arrival in Malawi.

Malawi has recorded 34,021 Covid-19 positive cases, 1,147 deaths and 31,921 recoveries, and 134 were lost to follow-up.

“This brings the total number of active cases to 819. In the past 24 hours, there was one new admission in the treatment units while one case was discharged. Currently, a total of six active cases are hospitalised, five in Blantyre, and one in Mzimba North Districts.”

The country has administered 277,442 doses of vaccine.

– African News Agency (ANA); Editing by Devereaux Morkel