I'm not going to get too worked up about people bypassing the quarantine by flying via other destinations and 'playing the system'. We have done the right thing by placing SA and neighbouring countries on the red list promptly which will mean quarantine for the vast majority of travellers.
We have almost everyone who can be vaccinated having done so and are slowly but surely getting through the booster campaign.
It was urgent to put India and neighbouring countries on the red list for Delta and we didn't respond. This was critical as the vaccination rollout still had some way to go. Since then it's accelerated somewhat and huge numbers have also been infected.
This time round it's important for different reasons - it's to learn about what impact Nu (as its expected to be called) has on immunity and transmission. Will future boosters be required specifically to target this type of variant? Either way, the current vaccinations and immunity through infection should hopefully still protect against the most serious of disease, then there's the roll of T cells etc too.
Point being, slowing down the spread of Nu is important whilst we learn about it, don't flood it into these shores in too great numbers from the get go. But, it's probably not the time to worry about a few travellers who work their way around it either. It will get here eventually, and if it's as transmissible as they predict it is just a case of delaying the inevitable for now.
We also have to be careful of how this looks to public health authorities in South Africa/Botswana who have identified the variant and been very transparent in an early, timely manner. Is the correct response to ostracise them completely or to work with them whilst still trying to protect our own citizens? Bare in mind, they might think twice about being so timely and transparent with any future variant if the result is hugely negative knock on effects for their country and how they're treated by the rest of the world.
