Washington praises South Africa's transparency... "and telling China"
On Saturday, the United States praised South Africa for quickly identifying the new mutant of the Corona virus, "Omicron", and for sharing this information with the world, directing a veiled criticism of China.
US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken spoke with South Africa's Minister of International Relations and Cooperation, Naledi Pandor, and they discussed cooperation in vaccinating Africa's population against COVID-19, the US State Department said in a statement.
The statement noted that "Blinken particularly commended the South African scientists, for their rapid identification of Omicron, and the South African government for its transparency in sharing this information," which should "set a model for the world."
On the other hand, the South African authorities complain that they are being “punished” and treated unfairly for reporting the discovery of “Omicron”, as their citizens suddenly became persona non grata all over the world.
The South African government expressed outrage at the stigma it has suffered in the past two days over the news about the mutant Omicron, which no one wanted to hear.
The Foreign Ministry said in a statement that the decision of many countries in the world to ban flights from South Africa after the discovery of the mutant Omicron "is like punishing South Africa (...) for discovering the new mutant faster."
The United States has repeatedly criticized China, during the reigns of former President Donald Trump and his Democratic predecessor, Joe Biden, with regard to the origin of the Corona virus, which was first detected in December 2019 in the Chinese city of Wuhan before it spread all over the world and claimed the lives of about 5. 2 million people.
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