South Africa on Wednesday announced the reopening of its borders to all African countries for the first time in over six months on Thursday, October 1, while barring tourists from around 50 nations with high coronavirus infection rates, reported Africa News.
The borders were initially closed at the end of March as part of a strict nationwide lockdown to stop the spread of the virus in South Africa.
South African International Relations and cooperation minister Naledi Pandor said the country would gradually open borders, but that restrictions were in place for around 50 countries categorised as high risk include Britain, the US, India, Russia, France, and Brazil, based on World Health Organisation Organisation guidelines over a seven-day period. She said the decision to reopen borders was taken considering the country’s declining infection rate.
“Only business travellers with scarce and critical skills, diplomats, investors and professional sports people coming for events from the high-risk countries will be permitted into the country,” Pandor said.
She added that travellers from all African countries will be allowed to enter. The country will reopen some land borders and its three main airports in Cape Town, Durban and Johannesburg.
The South African minister said the travel list will be reviewed every two weeks.
Notably, all travelers entering South Africa will be required to present a negative coronavirus test taken less than 72 hours prior to departure. They will be screened upon arrival and asked to install a coronavirus tracing app on their mobile phone. Temperature check and travel insurance will be mandatory for all travellers.
Hit-hard by the coronavirus pandemic, South Africa has so far reported over 672,572 infections and 16,667 deaths, that is around half the total number of cases detected on the continent.
Pandor said the countries with restrictions have a greater number of infections and deaths compared with South Africa.
