Russian tourists cannot & nbsp; return home from & nbsp; Africa, their flights were simply canceled. This is & nbsp; discovered on & nbsp; last week the omicron strain. According to & nbsp; Rospotrebnadzor, a distinctive feature of this option is & nbsp; that she has a large number of mutations in the & nbsp; S protein gene, which can make it more contagious, and & nbsp; also affect & nbsp; decrease the effectiveness of antibodies.
The first infected B.1.1.529 was identified in mid-November in Botswana. The 26 & nbsp; November found the first one infected with him & nbsp; in & nbsp; Europe. The patient took the plane for the & nbsp; Belgium from & nbsp; Egypt. Later the virus was registered in & nbsp; Israel, Great Britain, the Netherlands and & nbsp; in Hong Kong.
Thus, from November 26, the British authorities banned their citizens from traveling to South Africa, Botswana, Lesotho, Eswatini, Zimbabwe and Namibia. Similar measures in & nbsp; concerning these countries and the & nbsp; Mozambique were introduced in & nbsp; Israel. Germany, the Netherlands, Austria, Italy and the Czech Republic have also halted flights to Africa. For this & nbsp; reason, Russia from November 28 & nbsp; restricted the entry of foreigners from & nbsp; 10 & nbsp; countries of South Africa and & nbsp; Hong Kong. And & nbsp; today Rospotrebnadzor announced that those arriving in & nbsp; Russia from & nbsp; countries where the omicron strain has been detected, but & nbsp; with & nbsp; who are not & nbsp; open air traffic, will have to get to & nbsp; 14 days of quarantine, and & nbsp; reduced to & nbsp; 48 & nbsp; time.
These & nbsp; airlines that now continue to serve & nbsp; South Africa, bring out their citizens. For example, KLM flights and & nbsp; Lufthansa are only accessible to residents of the European Union with a Schengen visa and a & nbsp; certificate of & nbsp; vaccination against & nbsp; coronavirus with one of the & nbsp; WHO approved drugs.
Working with tourists, diplomats are also looking for ways to deliver Russians back to their home countries. It just isn't anyone can afford such options. One of them costs 15,000 & nbsp; euros. We are talking about a & nbsp; message in the Telegram channel, created by the Consulate General of Russia in & nbsp; Cape Town, where those stuck in & nbsp; Africa were offered to fly on a & nbsp; private flight: & nbsp; ; About in & nbsp; Wednesday December 1 & nbsp; of & nbsp; to the right towards Cape Town & nbsp; of & nbsp; to Cape Town & nbsp; Boeing 737-500 will fly to Uganda and & nbsp; Egypt (private charter). Total flight time & mdash; 15-16 & nbsp; time. Can take 10 to 15 people on board. The flight is chargeable. For & nbsp; any questions, contact & nbsp; Commercial Director of Pro trener Camps Andrey Krylov & raquo;. A few hours later, during another chat with & nbsp; representatives of the Embassy, a more detailed message appeared with & nbsp; the price of the flight.
Tonight the cat of the Russian Consulate General in & nbsp; Cape Town has announced that tourists will be able to travel on the d & nbsp; Ethiopian Airlines scheduled for & nbsp; 3 & nbsp; December. The cost of such a flight on the way to Cape Town & nbsp; & mdash; Addis Ababa & nbsp; & mdash; Moscow economy class will amount to 22,307.75 RSA. At the current rate, this represents more than 100,000 rubles.
Lilia & nbsp; B, a tourist from & nbsp; Russia:
“ I am & nbsp; to & nbsp; now Cape Town, with & nbsp; there is a girl in & nbsp; an inn, its & nbsp; theft was supposed to be the & nbsp; Sunday, and & nbsp; my & nbsp; & mdash; 1 & nbsp; December, but & nbsp; it was also canceled. We & nbsp; learned this from the news, and & nbsp; have received a notification from the & nbsp; airline company. I am & nbsp; very worried about this as i urgently need to get home. Now the tickets aren't cheap, but & nbsp; while there is the only opportunity available to fly on & nbsp; Ethiopian Airlines flights, on which we & nbsp; they & nbsp; bought them. We hope to fly away.
When we contacted the consulate, we received little information, as this Monday the negotiations had just started. But & nbsp; found other tourists who organized a Telegram chat. He has an Ethiopian consul who helps us the most. As far as I & nbsp; understand, Russia just helped organize a charter flight, not the & nbsp; repatriation, but & nbsp; although & nbsp; would be in & nbsp; the dates to come.
In the & nbsp; nbsp; case of cancellation of the flight plan & bdquo; B & ldquo; no: you will have to stay here until air traffic is restored, & nbsp; the university and & nbsp; to resign.
Anastasia, a tourist from & nbsp; Russia :
“ I had a round trip ticket for a Turkish Airlines flight on November 29th. Although I am not & nbsp; travel through a travel agency, but & nbsp; we & nbsp; went to & nbsp; group. One of us on Saturday November 27 received a text message saying the flight was canceled. Later, via the Internet, I went to the & nbsp; mail and & nbsp; learned that my flight was also quite simply canceled. We & nbsp; called & nbsp; Turkish Airlines, and & nbsp; they only offered two options: refund or change the ticket for the & nbsp; 10 & nbsp; December.
The main problem with & nbsp; is that there was nothing the & nbsp; weekend. The & nbsp; Sunday 28 & nbsp; November, I was redirected from the Embassy to the Consulate in & nbsp; Cape Town. There, the young man said that they also did not have any specific information, and & nbsp; Didn't even say anything about the timing. He promised to call back today, but that didn't happen. And & nbsp; in the evening I & nbsp; could & nbsp; to be able to go through there and & nbsp; typed, it seems, at the consulate of & nbsp; Pretoria. They replied that they had an influx of calls so they didn't take Cape Town, but were told they needed to be added to the Telegram chat they were on. they had done. To & nbsp; at that time there were two messages: wait for information and & nbsp; consider the option of Lufthansa, although according to & nbsp; the information of & nbsp; forums, it did not take Russian citizens.
My return ticket costs 25 & nbsp; thousand rubles, and & nbsp; now some sensible options on the & nbsp; are only for & nbsp; 49-50 thousand rubles and & nbsp; with & nbsp; four transfers. At the same time, it is not known whether you will be allowed to & nbsp; embark.
Even at the consulate I was told that air traffic with South Africa is not closed, there are companies that fly there so there will be no free export theft: & bdquo; You & nbsp; you yourself took the plane to & nbsp; this country, so you have to buy tickets yourself & ldquo ;. They recommended taking Ethiopian flights and following the news. Now the date of my departure is scheduled for & nbsp; 3 & nbsp; December. And & nbsp; due to the fact that nobody & nbsp; didn't give out any info, most of my friends also bought tickets themselves. In fact, I & nbsp; payroll and & nbsp; live here for another 4 & nbsp; nights, well, & nbsp; and & nbsp; bought a ticket at & nbsp; 2 & nbsp; times more expensive than & nbsp; i had.
In & nbsp; the city has mask mode; but & nbsp; and & nbsp; grocery stores are open. I & nbsp; walk a bit, but & nbsp; is not going anywhere.
Yulia Lebedeva, a tourist from & nbsp; Russia :
“ We flew to South Africa as part of the group tour (Russia and Ukraine team group). They had to go back to & nbsp; Moscow by Qatari Airlines on November 28 & nbsp; and & nbsp; the other part of the group & mdash; Turkish Airlines. Since & nbsp; the morning of & nbsp; the day before & nbsp; received a message from & nbsp; guide concerning the & nbsp; cancellation of our flights.
The guide sent us links to Telegram channels from the Russian Embassy in South Africa. The & nbsp; first & nbsp; day they began to quickly think about how to fly out of the country. Since Ethiopia and Kenya did not close the borders with South Africa, it was through them that Ethiopia decided. We bought tickets with Ethiopian Airlines for & nbsp; 1 & nbsp; December 1 & nbsp; with & nbsp; 2 & nbsp; transfers via Addis Ababa and & nbsp; Frankfurt for & nbsp; 15 & nbsp; thousand rand (about 70 thousand rubles). Now, as far as I know, the whole flight is already full. Our friends from & nbsp; group bought this & nbsp; same flight, only the & nbsp; 30 & nbsp; November, and & nbsp; already in the & nbsp; plane, everything seems to be fine.
Qatar Airways has requested a refund. They must reimburse the cost of the incomplete flight. We are now staying in a & nbsp; hotel in & nbsp; Cape Town. The & nbsp; first day, we & nbsp; phoned the representative of the consulate, he & nbsp; could & nbsp; help & nbsp; & bdquo; Look for flights you can fly & ldquo ;. As a result, we found everything ourselves before our authorities even started organizing an export theft on December 3
On Sunday, the President of South Africa took over speech and & nbsp; said everything was calm as long as the first level of containment was maintained (maximum & nbsp; & mdash; fifth). In the & nbsp; parts, you must be masked, but & nbsp; everything works somewhere until & nbsp; 12 & nbsp; night. For & nbsp; personal feelings, there are many Russian speakers here, we meet them & nbsp; everywhere & raquo;.
Sources:
https://aif.ru/health/coronavirus/chto_izvestno_o_novom_shtamme_koronavirusa_omikron_i_chem>: //ria.ru/20211126/tanzaniya-1760958474.html
https: //www.dw.com/ru/evrosojuz-priostanovit-aviasoobshhenie-s-jugizom -za-novogo-varianta- koronavirusa/a-59948102
https://t.me/urfu_ru/4133