Outbound passengers from Mozambique and 37 other countries have been banned from traveling to China since last Tuesday, according to an official announcement by China's state-owned carrier China Southern Airlines.

The decision, according to the company, affects passengers coming from countries such as Nigeria, South Africa, India, the Philippines, Iran, Russia and Mexico, despite the fact that there are measures in place "to prevent and control the pandemic" of covid-19.

The temporary entry restriction measure for outbound passengers from those countries also applies to Chinese citizens who wish to return to China via another country.

In April 2020, the Chinese state-run company stopped carrying passengers from Brazil to China due to the pandemic.

After the omicron variant was detected many states closed their borders to flights from southern Africa.

After omicron became dominant in at least 110 countries, most restrictions were lifted. On January 10, Taiwan removed Mozambique and nine other southern African countries from the high-risk list.

The respiratory disease has caused 5,503,347 deaths worldwide since the start of the pandemic, according to the most recent report by Agence France-Presse.