Anvisa (National Health Surveillance Agency) reinforced the importance of barring entry to Brazil of people who had, in the last 14 days, in four more African countries: Angola, Malawi, Mozambique and Zambia.
The federal government has already barred the entry of people from six countries after a recommendation by the regulatory agency. If it includes four more countries, the number of nations on the continent on the list of sanitary restrictions would increase to ten due to the new omicron variant.
Palácio do Planalto considered Anvisa’s arguments fragile, as there are no cases of the variant registered in all these countries.
At a meeting this Tuesday (30), government officials asked the agency to give better explanations about the reason for closing the border with countries without confirmed cases of the new variant.
But the agency argues that the restrictions on these four countries would be a precautionary measure. It also argues that they are places with low vaccination coverage, scarce data on the pandemic and that they border on countries where there is sustained transmission of the variant.
The agency also argues that identifying the variant is not enough to diagnose the disease with an RT-PCR test. It is necessary to sequence the virus, which requires a more robust laboratory structure.
The government is more resistant to closing the border with Angola. One of the reasons is that a line from Luanda to São Paulo will be reactivated on Thursday (2).
At a meeting in Planalto, government officials said that the resumption of these flights required “diplomatic effort”.
“This is done because we are aware that, unfortunately, vaccination coverage in that region is very low. Countries like Angola, for example, with very low vaccination rates and even more second doses,” said the director-president of Anvisa, Antonio Barra Towers.
“And because they also have contiguous borders with other countries where there is sustained transmission of this same variant. In addition to the fact that there are airports with regular lines to Brazil, such as Angola, with approximately five weekly flights and that, in the opinion of this agency, it is reasonable to carry out the temporary restriction,” he continued.
Torres said that these measures are part of a sum of efforts to strengthen health security in Brazil. He also defended the vaccine passport, which authorizes the entry into Brazil of vaccinated and tested people.
There was no progress in the debate on charging a vaccination certificate for anyone arriving in Brazil.
Since the 12th, Anvisa asks the Civil House to approve the vaccination passport. There is still strong resistance from the federal government to adopt tougher restrictions.
“All this is a sum of efforts, no measure alone has the power, even if it is to delay, the arrival of the variant alone. But together with all the others, we understand that we can increase health security,” said Torres.
The São Paulo Health Department confirmed this Wednesday (1st) the third case of the omicron variant in Brazil. There are still suspected cases under investigation in the Federal District, Rio de Janeiro and Minas Gerais.
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