(CNN) — Governments are trying to buy time with a rash of new travel restrictions as they figure out the potential impact of Omicron.
But the restrictions are being criticized by some officials as unfair and ineffective.
The World Health Organization's Regional Office for Africa said Sunday that it stands with African nations and called for borders to remain open as an increasing number of countries around the world impose flight bans from southern African countries.
The office said countries should take a risk-based and scientific approach and put in place measures that can limit the variant's possible spread.
"Putting in place travel bans that target Africa attacks global solidarity," WHO Regional Director for Africa Matshidiso Moeti said.
"Covid-19 constantly exploits our divisions. We will only get the better of the virus if we work together for solutions." Travel restrictions may play a role in slightly reducing the spread of Covid-19 but "place a heavy burden on lives and livelihoods."
There's an "intuitive attraction" to restricting travel, says Dr. William Schaffner, a professor of infectious diseases at Vanderbilt University Medical Center.
"'Gee, the bad viruses are there, let's put down an iron curtain and prevent the virus from getting here,' but travel restrictions are not very restrictive," he said.
In fact, they're very porous for several reasons.
For one, the United States' new restrictions still allow US citizens and legal permanent residents coming from the affected countries in southern Africa into the US.
"What makes anybody think that they couldn't bring the virus with them?" Schaffner said. It's similar to the earliest restrictions in 2020 curtailing travel from China, he said. "Americans kept coming back and they brought the virus with them."
"No. 2, we're dealing with an extraordinarily contagious respiratory virus and history tells us that bans, restrictions, etc. only give us a little bit of time, if that, because these are so contagious that they will spread."
And "there's always an element of closing the barn door after the horse has escaped," Schaffner said, noting that it's "only a matter of time" before the virus is discovered in the US.
"Are there any advantages to these travel restrictions? Well, they may buy us a little bit of time, slow things down as regards introductions of the virus, but not very much," Schaffner added.
Meanwhile, the International Air Transport Association (IATA) warned against travel bans, stressing such restrictions are "not a long-term solution" when it comes to managing coronavirus variants.
"Governments are responding to the risks of the new coronavirus variant in emergency mode causing fear among the traveling public," said IATA Director General Willie Walsh in a statement. "As quickly as possible we must use the experience of the last two years to move to a coordinated data-driven approach that finds safe alternatives to border closures and quarantine."
Top image: Travelers line up at check-in at OR Tambo International Airport in Johannesburg on November 27, 2021, after several countries banned flights from South Africa. (Phill Magakoe/AFP/Getty Images)
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