Sisulu made the call on the sideline of the 2021 Africa
Travel and Tourism Summit held in Lagos with the theme: “Reawakening Africa”.
She said COVID-19 vaccination must be taken seriously to
remove African countries from the red list of European countries.
According to her, the African Union has launched the
Pan-African bio-surveillance technology called PanaBIOS that can track the
spread of the Coronavirus and connect testing centres across the continent.
“Yet Africa as a whole is still considered a no-go zone,
many of our nations are on the United Kingdom red list of countries to avoid
travelling to.
“The United Kingdom itself has a little over 7 million
cases. Removing African countries from the red list of European countries is a
challenge we should embrace and work steadfastly to bring to an end.
“Reports have shown that tourism in countries with a high
share of vaccinated people will rebound faster than in countries with a low
share.
“The nature of the COVID-19 pandemic is that new variants
are bound to develop as a natural evolution of the virus.
“This is why, while vaccination remains absolutely
important, non-pharmaceutical interventions such as maintaining social
distancing, keeping masks on, sanitising remains critical international tourism
recovery.
“This will strongly depend on pandemic trajectories, travel
restrictions and vaccine development,” she said.
Sisulu said latest statistics showed there had been just
over eight million infections on the entire African continent, 33million fewer
than the United States of America, 25 million fewer than India and 13 million
fewer than Brazil.
She noted that nearly 76 million vaccinations have been
administered throughout Africa.
According to her, South Africa alone had administered over
15 million vaccines and the country had shown a downward trend in terms of
infection rates.
“In East Africa, reports show that low access to vaccines,
slow vaccine rollouts and a potentially high cost of vaccination risk are
holding back the recovery of the region’s economies.
“Yet, in spite of these concerns, the African Union has made
great strides to ensure the vaccines are administered securely.
“The Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention
(Africa CDC) Consortium for COVID-19 is a knowledge hub that brings together
vaccine developers.
“It also brought together vaccine funders, and African
organisations that conduct clinical trials to collate information on the virus
and act on their findings.
“So we need to take vaccination seriously to ensure African
economy is not further tampered with,” she said.
The Minister said that it was quite important that Africans
aligned as a continent to adopt measures to reignite the tourism industry, as
this was crucial for building inclusive recovery.
“As we embark on new ways of doing business and hosting the
peoples of the world, we need to draw lessons from the experiences of the
pandemic and ensure that our businesses are more robust and agile for future
sustainability,” she said.