Luiza Oliveira is 8 years old and has a surgery scheduled for the 9th in Curitiba. The operation to correct the eyesight (strabismus) was supposed to have taken place in July of last year, but it had to be postponed due to the pandemic. She has lived with her family in Johannesburg since 2019. The mother, Vera Lúcia Santos, says that they would embark on Thursday (2) for Brazil, traveling for the company Qatar Airways, which canceled flights departing South Africa due to the discovery of the omicron variant of the coronavirus.
Preoperative exams are scheduled, according to the mother, who is in contact with the girl’s doctor. Worried, she doesn’t know when they will be able to travel and remembers that her daughter can’t wait any longer for the surgery. Her feeling is also one of indignation at the restrictions imposed by countries on tourists from parts of southern Africa or who were in this region in the 14 days prior to the arrival date.
“There’s no way to be calm right now. We wait for the date to arrive and don’t even know what date it will be, the flight”, he vented. For Vera Lúcia, this still shows that the world is not united. “South Africa helped uncover a problem that could affect the whole world and, as a result, the country is being punished for it,” he said.
Another Brazilian who has also lived in Johannesburg for six years and has planned to visit her family in Brazil this end of the year is Karina Polycarpo, who works in a photography studio and is married to a South African. She hasn’t seen her parents for two years and was shocked when she heard the news that this reunion may have postponed it.
“When I heard the news on the radio, first thing in the morning, my heart stopped. The tickets are already extremely expensive, all the options. It’s a big financial and emotional investment too,” he said. But she, who is hoping to be able to board next week, also expressed outrage at the restrictions imposed on travelers from South Africa.
“It’s not a South African variant, you don’t know where it started. Since the beginning of this pandemic, South Africa has been doing wonderful work with scientists. [presidente sul-africano] Cyril Ramaphosa spoke yesterday is what we are all feeling. We are feeling extremely wronged”, he said.
no forecast
Unlike the two, who already live in the country, military policeman Thomaz Augusto Santana França disembarked in South Africa on the 21st. He came for a trip, planning to stay for two weeks. The return was scheduled for next Sunday (5), by Emirates. But the flight was also cancelled. He said that he received a message from the company, by e-mail, but “they did not give any justification for the cancellation or prediction of new dates for boarding”.
The Brazilian said that the news about the new variant did not scare him at first. “The discovery of the variant was something that added to studies on the virus. What bothers me is the fact that other nations did not understand the situation and closed their borders, hindering our return to our country of origin. concern,” he said.
The Brazilian embassy in Pretoria and the Brazilian consulate general in Cape Town issued a note stating that 230 Brazilians are being held here in South Africa. More than half (70%) in Cape Town. He stressed that Brazilians and residents of Brazil can, yes, return to the country and there is no reason for airlines to prevent their departures. The Brazilian restrictions are on foreigners who were in the country in the 14 days prior to the trip. The embassy also said that it is doing everything possible to facilitate the boarding of Brazilians who already have tickets purchased.
new cases
The estimate that, in the coming days, South Africa will start registering –once again– around 10,000 new cases a day confirmed what was already expected: the fourth wave of infections in the country is approaching. This forecast was presented by infectious disease specialist Salim Abdool Karim in an interview this Monday morning with Health Minister Joe Phaahla and other specialists.
The report released on Monday night registered 2,273 new cases and 25 deaths in South Africa. Even with the number of new infected ones increasing since last week and the identification of the omicron variant, the South African government reinforced that there is no reason to panic . In a statement on TV, Sunday night, President Cyril Ramaphosa urged countries to re-allow flights between countries in the south of the African continent.
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