New Delhi: With the World Health Organization assessing that the new COVID-19 variant ‘Omicron’ carries a very high risk of infection, India has offered help to African countries in the form of additional vaccines, research cooperation and medical equipment.The emergence of the Omicron variant has led to many countries shutting down transport links, with the UN’s health body asserting on Monday that the overall global risk is “very high”.The ‘Omicron’ variant had been first reported in South Africa last week, with new cases now reported in over a dozen countries. Since then, many countries have started to put in travel restrictions that had earlier been relaxed as the number of COVID-19 cases has decreased. Japan and Israel have already banned the entry of all foreign nationals.India has announced a new set of travel restrictions under which travellers from ‘at risk’ countries will have to undergo a test on arrival and remain in the airport for the results. If they test negative, they will be able to go to home quarantine for seven days, following which a second test will be done on the eighth day. If positive, they will go into institutional quarantine, and their samples will be sent for genomic sampling.The ‘at risk’ countries included three southern African countries – Botswana, Zimbabwe and South Africa. The other countries on the list are China, the United Kingdom, European countries, Bangladesh, Brazil, Mauritius, New Zealand, Hong Kong, Singapore and Israel.Also watch | ‘Omicron’s South Africa Impact Not Yet of Major Concern, Need to Observe More’Later in the day, the Ministry of External Affairs stated that the Indian government “stands ready to support the countries affected in Africa in dealing with the Omicron variant, including by supplies of made-in-India vaccines”.Last month, India removed the ban on the export of India-made COVID-19 vaccines after about a period of six months. So far, the Serum Institute of India has sent vaccines to Nepal, Bangladesh and Paraguay to fulfil pending orders. Besides, India has also sent vaccines to Iran and Myanmar as grants. The MEA announced that India would be sending supplies of Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin vaccine to Botswana.India was also scheduled to fulfil its commitment to deliver vaccines to WHO’s Covax facility for distribution in less developed nations.“In this regard, the Government has cleared all orders placed so far by COVAX for supplies of COVISHIELD vaccines including to African countries like Malawi, Ethiopia, Zambia, Mozambique, Guinea and Lesotho. Any new requirement projected either bilaterally or through COVAX will be considered expeditiously,” said the MEA statement.Since Covax procures a substantial amount of vaccines from SII, the export ban from April to October this year had adversely delayed the distribution programme in developing countries, especially in Africa.According to UNICEF in May, the export restrictions on SII, vaccine nationalism, and inadequate funding were the primary reasons for the delay in vaccine rollout across the world. The world’s largest manufacturer, SII, was committed to delivering 200 million doses to Covax. African countries have accounted for over 80 per cent of India’s 19.8 million vaccines exported through Covax.According to MEA records, Indian firms have sent 25 million doses to 41 African countries since January. Of them, 16 million doses were under the Covax facility, one million was donated by India bilaterally, and the rest were through commercial agreements with Indian manufacturers. Earlier on Monday, Chinese President Xi Jinping offered one billion COVID-19 vaccines to Africa at a virtual summit with African leaders.The MEA statement also added that India was also ready to supply essential medicines and equipment like ventilators, test kits, gloves, PPE kits etc. Further, India also offered to connect African institutions with their Indian counterparts for cooperation in “genomic surveillance and virus characterization related research work”.