Foreign tourists flock to South African airports in bid to urgently leave country - TASS

Crowds of foreign tourists flocked to South African airports on Saturday, trying to urgently leave the country following reports that a new highly contagious SARS-CoV-2 variant named ‘omicron’ was identified there.

"Numerous and unexpected flight cancellations by many air carriers created significant difficulties for us," a Johannesburg airport source told TASS on Saturday. "This afternoon, one of the largest air carriers in the South African airspace, Qatar Airways, grounded all flights. As a result, thousands of tourists and vacationers found themselves in a difficult situation, because their flights have been cancelled.