Omicron variant: World races to contain new Covid-19 threat

Saturday, 27 November 2021

Nearly two years into the Covid-19 pandemic, the world is racing to contain a new coronavirus variant that is potentially more dangerous than the one that has fuelled relentless waves of infection on every continent.

A World Health Organisation panel named the variant “omicron” and classified it as a highly transmissible virus of concern, the same category that includes the predominant delta variant, which is still a scourge driving higher cases of sickness and death in Europe and parts of the United States.

A resident from the Alexandra township gets tested for Covid-19 in Johannesburg. (file photo)

“It seems to spread rapidly,” US President Joe Biden said of the new variant, only a day after celebrating the resumption of Thanksgiving gatherings for millions of American families and the sense that normal life was coming back at least for the vaccinated. In announcing new travel restrictions, he told reporters, “I’ve decided that we’re going to be cautious.”

Omicron's actual risks are not understood. But early evidence suggests an increased risk of reinfection compared with other highly transmissible variants, the WHO said. That means people who contracted Covid-19 and recovered could be subject to catching it again. It could take weeks to know if current vaccines are less effective against it.

* Covid-19: New Omicron variant 'highly transmissible' virus - WHO

* Covid-19: New variant discovered in South Africa a 'wake-up call for all of us'

A woman video chats with another woman at the Mahane Yehuda market in Jerusalem ahead of Shabbat and the Jewish holiday of Hanukkah. Israel's prime minister says it is 'on the threshold of an emergency situation' after authorities detected the country's first case of a new coronavirus variant in a traveller who returned from Malawi.

In response to the variant's discovery in southern Africa, the United States, Canada, Russia and a host of other countries joined the European Union in restricting travel for visitors from southern Africa, where the variant brought on a fresh surge of infections.

The White House said the US will restrict travel from South Africa and seven other countries in the region beginning Monday (Tuesday NZ time). Biden said that means “no travel” to or from the designated countries except for returning US citizens and permanent residents who test negative.

People lineup to get on the Air France flight to Paris at OR Tambo's airport in Johannesburg, South Africa.

Medical experts, including the WHO, warned against any overreaction before the variant was better understood. But a jittery world feared the worst nearly two years after the tenacious virus emerged and triggered a pandemic that has killed more than 5 million people around the globe.

“We must move quickly and at the earliest possible moment,” British Health Secretary Sajid Javid told lawmakers.

Omicron has now been seen in travellers to Belgium, Hong Kong and Israel as well as in southern Africa.

There was no immediate indication whether the variant causes more severe disease. As with other variants, some infected people display no symptoms, South African experts said. The WHO panel drew from the Greek alphabet in naming the variant Omicron, as it has done with earlier, major variants of the virus.

Even though some of the genetic changes appear worrisome, it was unclear how much of a public health threat it posed. Some previous variants, like the Beta variant, initially concerned scientists but did not spread very far.

The 27-nation European Union suspended air travel from southern Africa, and stocks tumbled in Asia, Europe and the United States. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped more than 1000 points before an afternoon uptick. The S&P 500 index closed down 2.3 per cent, its worst day since February. The price of oil plunged about 13 per cent.

Trader Dennis Maguire works on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. Stocks are closing sharply lower on Wall Street, after a coronavirus variant from South Africa appeared to be spreading across the globe and the European Union proposed suspending air travel from southern Africa.

“The last thing we need is to bring in a new variant that will cause even more problems,” German Health Minister Jens Spahn said. The member nations of the EU have experienced a massive spike in cases recently.

EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said flights will have to “be suspended until we have a clear understanding about the danger posed by this new variant, and travellers returning from this region should respect strict quarantine rules.”

She warned that “mutations could lead to the emergence and spread of even more concerning variants of the virus that could spread worldwide within a few months.'

“It’s a suspicious variant,' said Frank Vandenbroucke, health minister in Belgium, which became the first European Union country to announce a case of the variant. “We don’t know if it’s a very dangerous variant.”

Omicron has yet to be detected in the United States, said Dr Anthony Fauci, the US government's top infectious disease expert. Although it may be more transmissible and resistant to vaccines than other variants, 'we don’t know that for sure right now,” he told CNN.

Speaking to reporters outside a bookstore on Nantucket Island, where he was spending the holiday weekend, Biden said the new variant was 'a great concern” that “should make clearer than ever why this pandemic will not end until we have global vaccinations.'

He called anew for unvaccinated Americans to get their widely available doses and for governments to waive intellectual property protections for Covid-19 vaccines so they can be more rapidly manufactured around the world.

Israel, one of the world's most vaccinated countries, announced that it also detected its first case of the new variant in a traveller who returned from Malawi. The traveller and two other suspected cases were placed in isolation. Israel said all three were vaccinated, but officials were looking into the travelers' exact vaccination status.

After a 10-hour overnight trip, passengers aboard KLM Flight 598 from Capetown, South Africa, to Amsterdam were held on the edge of the runway Friday morning at Schiphol airport for four hours pending special testing. Passengers aboard a flight from Johannesburg were also being isolated and tested.

“It’s ridiculous. If we didn’t catch the dreaded bug before, we're catching it now,” said passenger Francesca de’ Medici, a Rome-based art consultant who was on the flight.

Associated Press writers Lorne Cook in Brussels, Colleen Barry in Milan, Pan Pylas in London, Jamey Keaten in Geneva, Mike Corder in The Hague, Dave McHugh in Frankfurt, Carley Petesch in Dakar, Andrew Meldrum in Johannesburg and Frank Jordans in Berlin contributed to this report.