After a number of countries banned flights from South Africa, the country's foreign ministry said it is being 'punished' for detecting a new Covid-19 variant.
The foreign affairs ministry said in a statement that the ban on flights from South Africa 'is akin to punishing South Africa for its advanced genomic sequencing and the ability to detect new variants quicker'.
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The statement also said that excellent science should be applauded and not punished.
The World Health Organization has termed the new strain, which has been named Omicron, a 'variant of concern' and said is more transmissible than the dominant Delta strain.