South Africa Tourism Industry Calls on UK to Lift Red List Restrictions Following New Scientific Research

Key findings from South Africa study:

• South Africa’s largest private health insurer, Discovery Health, in conjunction with the South Africa Medical Research Council (SAMRC) led by Professor Glenda Gray, has announced the largest real-world assessment of the Omicron variant to date
• Research across 78,000 Omicron positive COVID-19 test results in South Africa between 15 November and 7 December 2021 considered the severity of illness relative to ancestral COVID and the protection afforded by vaccines against hospitalisation and severe disease and death
• Findings reveal that two doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine continue to confer a 70% protection against severe complications from Omicron
• The risk of hospitalisation among all adults diagnosed with COVID-19 is 29% lower for those with the Omicron variant compared to the original ancestral variant that originated in China
• Numbers of patients requiring oxygen and ventilation in hospital remains low compared to previous waves

Dr Ryan Noach, CEO of Discovery Health, said:

“We are encouraged that the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine continues to offer high levels of protection from severe COVID-19 illness. We are hopeful that the current experience of COVID-19 caused by the Omicron variant – mild disease for the most part – will remain unchanged.”

Shirley Collie, Chief Health Analytics Actuary at Discovery Health, said:

“Adults are experiencing a 29% lower admission risk relative to South Africa’s first wave of infection, dominated by D614G, in early 2020. Furthermore, hospitalised adults currently have a lower propensity to be admitted to High care and Intensive Care Units, relative to prior waves.”

Tshifhiwa Tshivhengwa, CEO of Tourism Business Council South Africa (TBCSA), South Africa’s umbrella travel and tourism association, said:

“You are now as likely to catch Omicron in Coventry as you are in Cape Town, and the scientific evidence is clear, that for most people this variant results in a mild disease which poses a low risk to public health.

“Millions of people across Southern Africa are dependent on tourism for an income, and thousands more families are waiting anxiously to know if their loved ones will be home for the holidays. The UK needs to act immediately to remove its discriminatory red list and begin rebuilding trust with the Global South where its travel policy is causing anger and resentment.”

Tshifhiwa is available for further comment and interview.

Notes to Editors:

Tourism – economic impact in Southern Africa

The UK is the largest overseas market for tourism into South Africa. In a typical year approximately 450,000 British passport holders travel into South Africa, contributing to national income from tourism of R265 billion ($18bn). Tourism provides 726 000 direct jobs and in total 1.5 million jobs directly and indirectly. One job in tourism can support an additional 10 people in some rural areas. This disproportionately benefits the life chances of young women given that approximately 70% of tourism workers are themselves women.

Travel and tourism are also critical to the funding of conservation in Africa. Over the past 30 years government financing for parks and biodiversity protection has declined in favour of a model sustained by eco-tourism. Without this income, rural communities are hit hard. Wildlife is looked at as food rather than an asset to be protected. Tourism infrastructure is destroyed, fences come down and the knowledge and skills in the sector move abroad or into different industries. This negative cycle threatens not only habitats but the planet. Africa’s grasslands and rainforests are only now being appreciated for their role in carbon capture, something that is put at risk if landowners are forced to monetise them through more extractive industries like mining, logging or large-scale agriculture.

About the TBCSA

The Tourism Business Council of South Africa (TBCSA) is the umbrella organisation representing the unified voice of business in the travel and tourism sector.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20211214005750/en/

Nigel Fairbrass
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Ben Cope
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