As more countries are increasingly lifting Covid-19 restrictions, RX Radio Presenter Olive Najjuma has said that without a doubt, even the rigid countries will soon follow suit.
This was during The Fatboy show as the Presenter co-hosting with Fatboy, commented on the new variant that has evolved from Omicron and is known as Omicron BA 2. According to the WHO, the variant is even more transmissible than the first Omicron (BA.1). However, there is no supporting evidence that it is more severe than its sister version.
Commenting on this, Fatboy said, “Seeing that many countries are easing their restrictions, I don't think this new development is going to change their trajectory which is living with Covid essentially.”
“Actually they are not only releasing restrictions but they will also abandon them. The other day, the UAE allowed people from Uganda and other countries previously under a ban with only one PCR test result before they travel. It can even be as old as 48 hours and yet previously, it was 6 hours. And this wasn't long ago because they lifted their borders on the 7th January,” said Olive.
However, while other countries such as Canada, Australia and New Zealand are aggressive and are still maintaining their Covid-19 restrictions and mandates, including providing proof of vaccination to access public places and services, Olive believes that these too will eventually join other countries that eased their restrictions.
“In countries like Australia where they had planned to have zero infections by putting in place strict restrictions, they can't just move from that to full reopening because they will look stupid. Eventually, they are going to drop all those measures because they aren't helping,”Fatboy said.
Fatboy agreed that they would have to since the vaccine mandates are impractical given the available vaccines were initially for SARS-COV-2 and would be ineffective for other variants. However, he said that the pharmaceutical companies continue pressing governments to establish mandates so as to make their intended profits.
The Fatboy show is hosted by James Onen aka Fatboy, Olive, Sarah and Lesham every weekday from 6am to 10am on RX Radio.