By Spy Uganda Respondent
Kigali: Rwanda’s national carrier RwandAir has with immediate effect suspended its flights to three southern Africa routes including South Africa, Zimbabwe and Zambia due to the emerging global concerns of the new Covid variants prevalence hence becoming dangerous zones that may spur further spread of the deadly Virus.
According to a statement released on Monday, February 8, suspended routes include Johannesburg, Cape Town, Lusaka and Harare.
“Scheduled flights will resume as soon as there is more clarity on the situation”, the airline said in a statement posted on Twitter.
“Affected customers can re-book and fly at a later date at no additional cost or request for a fund,” reads part of the statement.
Reports indicate that South Africa, was among the countries which detected new variants of Covid-19, a few weeks ago. Other countries include Brazil, Britain among others.
However, with the variants spreading across the Southern Africa region, experts say that this will arguably make the fight against Covid-19 more demanding and frustrating.
South African government has already put its roll-out of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine on hold after a study showed “disappointing” results against its new Covid variant.
South Africa received one million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccines and was due to start vaccinating but the results were not effective as expected by experts.
After months of lock-down last year, RwandAir resumed commercial flights in August 2020 across its global network, including most of its African routes, as well as some long-haul destinations such as London Heathrow, Brussels and Dubai.
The airline recently launched its twice-weekly flights to Central Africa Republic’s capital Bangui as part of its recovery strategy from the impact of Covid-19 pandemic.
All passengers arriving in Rwanda are required to present a negative Covid-19 PCR test taken within 72 hours of boarding their flights.
Upon arrival, they are required to self-quarantine for seven days and take a free of charge PCR test at the end of this period.
