Nepal will ban the entry of travellers who have been in eight African countries or Hong Kong, to curb the spread of the new Omicron coronavirus variant, a government spokesman said on Friday.

The ban, which goes into effect at midnight on Friday, covers people who have been in or transiting through South Africa, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Namibia, Lesotho, Eswatini, Mozambique, Malawi and Hong Kong.

Travellers who have been to these countries in the past three weeks will also not be allowed to enter Nepal, and all other international visitors already in transit must spend seven days at their own cost in hotel quarantine, the government said in a statement.

“Nepali nationals are advised against non-essential foreign travel for fear of the new variant,” Home Ministry spokesman Phanindra Pokharel told Reuters.

Government employees and delegates to international conferences must obtain prior permission for their visits.

The variant – identified first in South Africa, but also detected in Europe, Asia and the United States – is potentially more contagious than previous variants, although experts do not know yet if it will cause more or less severe COVID-19 compared to other strains.

Meanwhile, India reported its first two cases of the Omicron coronavirus variant on Thursday but the government said it had no immediate plan to authorise booster vaccine shots despite demands from lawmakers.

The federal health ministry said two male patients with the new strain, aged 66 and 46 years, had shown mild symptoms.

The health minister of the southern state of Karnataka, where the cases were detected, said the first person, a South African national, spent a week in India and left last Saturday after testing negative. More than 250 of his contacts have tested negative.

The second one, an Indian physician, had no recent travel history, minister Sudhakar K. told reporters. Both are fully vaccinated.

Five more contacts of the doctor, who isolated himself on Nov. 23 after feeling unwell, have also tested positive and their samples were being investigated to determine the variant. (REUTERS)