South Africa may not allow Indians and Brazilians to enter the country when it reopens for international travellers from October 1 onwards. Read on to know why. By Amitha Ameen
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South Africa is currently contemplating on whether it should include two of its BRICS partners — India and Brazil — on its list of countries that will not be allowed to enter the country due to high infection levels. Currently, both countries are just behind the US in terms of the highest number of COVID-19 cases in the world.
The list of countries is currently being vetted by South African Health Minister Zweli Mkhize along with other ministers; the final list is expected to be finalised by early next week. Along with India and Brazil, the UK and France are also expected to be on the list that will be revised every two weeks.
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South Africa is now worried that restricting travellers from India and Brazil may cause some diplomatic issues and whether trade and tourism will be affected because of this decision. South Africa announced that the nation is welcoming visitors after relaxing its lockdown to level one, the lowest in the government’s five-level plan to curb the pandemic.
“We are opening up because we want people to come slowly and to start to travel for leisure and tourism. But what the President has directed is that we must do this cautiously. Eventually, we will open up (completely) but we can’t do it all at once like ‘boom’. This is especially the case for international travel where we can have people move from one city and one country to the other,” said the country’s Transport Minister, Fikile Mbalula (as reported on Business Tech).
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