THE Government of Russian Federation has announced that foreigner visitors from Lesotho and eight other African countries as well as Hong Kong are completely banned from entering Russia due to the fear of the spread of the COVID-19 virus.

A decree announcing new travel restrictions, was signed by Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin and published over the weekend.
The new Russian government’s ruling effectively cancels all earlier exceptions for the diplomatic passport holders, travellers on business visa and other categories of visitors.
The eight other African countries include Botswana, South Africa, Eswatini, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Madagascar, Mozambique and Tanzania.
Earlier, Russia’s anti-coronavirus crisis centre reported that the entry of foreigners residing in Hong Kong or in some African countries would be ‘restricted’ due to the spread of the new strain of the infection.
On November 26, the World Health Organisation (WHO) designated the B.1.1.529 variant identified in South Africa as a “Variant of Concern” and assigned it the Greek letter Omicron.
In its statement, the WHO noted that “this variant has a large number of mutations, some of which are concerning.”

The epicenter of the spread of the Omicron strain is southern Africa.
The highest number of those infected with the virus has been detected in South Africa. The new strain has since been recorded in over 50 other countries.