Category: Medical

LONDON — The new potentially more contagious omicron variant of the coronavirus popped up in more European countries on Saturday, just days after being identified in South Africa, leaving governments around the world scrambling to stop the spread.

The U.K. on Saturday tightened its rules on mask-wearing and on testing of international arrivals after finding two cases. New cases were confirmed Saturday in Germany and Italy, with Belgium, Israel and Hong Kong also reporting that the variant has been found in travelers.

In the U.S., Dr. Anthony Fauci, the government’s top infectious diseases expert, said he would not be surprised if the omicron variant was already in the United States, too.

“We have not detected it yet, but when you have a virus that is showing this degree of transmissibility … it almost invariably is ultimately going to go essentially all over,” Fauci said on NBC television.

Because of fears that the new variant has the potential to be more resistant to the protection offered by vaccines, there are growing concerns around the world that the pandemic and associated lockdown restrictions will persist for far longer than hoped.

Nearly two years since the start of the pandemic that has claimed more than 5 million lives around the world, countries are on high alert. Many have already imposed travel restrictions on flights from southern Africa as they seek to buy time to assess whether the omicron variant is more transmissible than the current dominant delta variant.

In Britain, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said it was necessary to take “targeted and precautionary measures” after two people tested positive for the new variant in England.

“Right now this is the responsible course of action to slow down the seeding and the spread of this new variant and to maximize our defenses,” he told a news conference.

Among the measures announced, Johnson said anyone arriving in England must take a PCR test for COVID-19 on the second day after their arrival and self-isolate until they provide a negative test. And if someone tests positive for the omicron variant, then he said their close contacts will have to self-isolate for 10 days regardless of their vaccination status — currently close contacts are exempt from quarantine rules if they are fully vaccinated.

He also said mask-wearing in shops and on public transport will be required and said the independent group of scientists that advises the British government on the rollout of coronavirus vaccines has been asked to accelerate the vaccination program. This could involve widening the booster program to younger age groups, reducing the time period between a second dose and a booster and allowing older children to get a second dose.

“From today we’re going to boost the booster campaign,” he said.

Britain’s Department of Health said the two cases found in the U.K. were linked and involved travel from southern Africa. One of the two new cases was in the southeastern English town of Brentwood, while the other was in the central city of Nottingham. The two confirmed cases are self-isolating with their households while contact tracing and targeted testing takes place.

The British government also added four more countries — Angola, Malawi, Mozambique and Zambia — to the country’s travel red list from Sunday. Six others — Botswana, Eswatini (formerly Swaziland), Lesotho, Namibia, South Africa and Zimbabwe — were added Friday. That means anyone permitted to arrive from those destinations will have to quarantine.

Many countries have slapped restrictions on various southern African countries over the past couple of days, including Australia, Brazil, Canada, the European Union, Iran, Japan, New Zealand, Thailand and the United States, in response to warnings over the transmissibility of the new variant. This goes against the advice of the World Health Organization, which has warned against any overreaction before the variant was thoroughly studied.

Despite the banning of flights, there are mounting concerns that the variant has already been widely seeded around the world.

Italy and Germany were the latest to report confirmed cases of the omicron variant.

An Italian who had traveled to Mozambique on business landed in Rome on Nov. 11 and returned to his home near Naples. He and five family members, including two school-age children, have since tested positive, the Italian news agency LaPresse said. All are isolating in the Naples suburb of Caserta in good condition with light symptoms.

The variant was confirmed by Sacco hospital in Milan, and Italy’s National Health Institute said the man had received two doses of the vaccine. Italy’s health ministry is urging all regions to increase tracing of the virus and sequencing to detect cases of the new variant first identified in South Africa.

In Germany, the Max von Pettenkofer Institute, a Munich-based microbiology center, said the omicron variant was confirmed in two travelers who arrived on a flight from South Africa on Nov. 24. The head of the institute, Oliver Keppler, said that genome sequencing has yet to be completed, but it is “proven without doubt that it is this variant,” German news agency dpa reported.

The Dutch public health institute said the omicron variant was “probably found in a number of the tested persons” who were isolated after arriving Friday in Amsterdam on two flights from South Africa. The institute said in a statement that further sequencing analysis is underway to determine for sure that it is the new variant. The results were expected Sunday. A total of 61 people were tested.

Israel said it detected the new strain in a traveler who had returned from Malawi and was tracing 800 travelers who returned recently from southern African countries. And Australia said early Sunday its scientists were working to determine whether two people who tested positive for COVID after arriving from southern Africa are infected with the omicron variant.

The variant’s swift spread among young people in South Africa has alarmed health professionals even though there was no immediate indication whether the variant causes more severe disease.

Several pharmaceutical firms, including AstraZeneca, Moderna, Novavax and Pfizer, said they have plans in place to adapt their vaccines in light of the emergence of omicron. Pfizer and its partner BioNTech said they expect to be able to tweak their vaccine in around 100 days.

Professor Andrew Pollard, the director of the Oxford Vaccine Group, which developed the AstraZeneca vaccine, expressed cautious optimism that existing vaccines could be effective at preventing serious disease from the omicron variant, noting that most of the mutations appear to be in similar regions as those in other variants.

“At least from a speculative point of view we have some optimism that the vaccine should still work against a new variant for serious disease, but really we need to wait several weeks to have that confirmed,” he told BBC radio.

Some experts said the variant’s emergence illustrated how rich countries’ hoarding of vaccines threatens to prolong the pandemic.

Fewer than 6% of people in Africa have been fully immunized against COVID-19, and millions of health workers and vulnerable populations have yet to receive a single dose. Those conditions can speed up spread of the virus, offering more opportunities for it to evolve into a dangerous variant.

“One of the key factors to emergence of variants may well be low vaccination rates in parts of the world, and the WHO warning that none of us is safe until all of us are safe and should be heeded,” said Peter Openshaw, a professor of experimental medicine at Imperial College London.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke Saturday with his South African counterpart, Naledi Pandor, and they stressed the importance of working together to help African nations vaccinate their populations, the State Department said in a statement. It said Blinken praised South Africa’s scientists for quickly identifying the omicron variant and the government for its transparency in sharing this information, “which should serve as a model for the world.”

 

Source: Voice of America

SYDNEY — Australia has brought in travel bans and new quarantine orders because of concerns about the new omicron COVID-19 variant first reported in southern Africa. Two cases have been discovered in travelers arriving in Australia.

Urgent testing is underway to determine whether passengers infected with COVID-19 who have arrived in Sydney from southern Africa are carrying the omicron variant.

The travelers have been taken to so-called Special Health Accommodation where they will spend 14 days in quarantine.

The World Health Organization has declared omicron a “variant of concern” as researchers work to establish whether it is more infectious than other strains.

Australia has moved quickly to impose strict border controls. Noncitizens from nine southern African countries are banned. They are South Africa, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Lesotho, Eswatini — formerly known as Swaziland, the Seychelles, Malawi and Mozambique.

Australian citizens and their families who have spent time in those countries during the past two weeks must go into isolation on their return home. Passengers arriving from all other countries would be required to isolate for 72 hours on arrival into the states of New South Wales and Victoria, which have seen Australia’s worst COVID-19 outbreaks this year.

Federal Health Minister Greg Hunt said a cautious approach is needed.

“The Australian government will be implementing additional precautionary border security measures in order to protect Australians whilst more is learnt about the nature and impact of the omicron variant of concern. There are currently no known cases of the omicron variant in Australia,” he said.

Health authorities in New South Wales have said that the new variant is not well understood and warned that it may be already in Australia.

The omicron variant has been detected in Belgium, Germany, Hong Kong, Israel, Italy and the United Kingdom.

It is less than a month since New South Wales and Victoria – Australia’s most populous states – removed all quarantine requirements for fully vaccinated international arrivals.

Australia has recorded 206,000 COVID-19 cases and almost 2,000 deaths since the pandemic began. Currently 536 patients need hospital care, according to the Health Department.

More than 85% of the eligible Australian population is fully vaccinated.

 

 

Source: Voice of America

U.S. President Joe Biden announced the United States will restrict travel from South Africa and seven other African countries, effective Monday.

Any non-U.S. citizen who has been in one of the eight nations during the 14 days before coming to the United States will be denied entry. The restrictions do not apply to American citizens and lawful permanent residents; however, they must test negative before traveling, as must all international travelers.

Biden made the announcement Friday after consulting with Dr. Anthony Fauci, his chief medical adviser. Besides South Africa, the other countries are Botswana, Zimbabwe, Namibia, Lesotho, Eswatini, Mozambique and Malawi.

Biden took the action after the World Health Organization (WHO) designated the new variant, B.1.1.529, a variant of concern and dubbed it omicron.

In his announcement, Biden said he had two important messages for the American people: For those fully vaccinated, “get a booster shot as soon as you are eligible.” And “for those not yet fully vaccinated, get vaccinated today.”

What is omicron?

Omicron is the fifth WHO-designated variant of concern. It was first detected in recent weeks in South Africa, which has seen an exponential rise in COVID-19 cases.

There are about 30 mutations on the virus’ spike protein, and scientists worry that some of them could make the virus easier to transmit. But scientists do not yet know whether omicron is in fact more transmissible or dangerous.

Worries about the new variant sent financial markets reeling Friday and pushed the price of oil down by $10 a barrel.

The WHO said understanding the variant could take weeks and cautioned against travel restrictions. Its director of emergencies, Mike Ryan, urged “no knee-jerk responses.”

Ryan’s advice went unheeded as travel restrictions were immediately reinstated in places including Britain, the European Union, Canada and the U.S. Other countries, such as India, Japan, Israel, Turkey, Switzerland and the United Arab Emirates enacted some form of travel curbs, Reuters reported.

Some epidemiologists warned that they were likely too late. Omicron has already been found in Belgium, Botswana, Israel and Hong Kong. Dozens of passengers disembarking in the Netherlands from flights from South Africa initially tested positive for the coronavirus.

“Travelers with a positive test result will be placed in isolation at a hotel at or near Schiphol,” Dutch health authorities said in a statement. “Of the positive test results, we are researching as quickly as possible whether they are the new variant of concern.”

Travel restrictions and quarantine requirements in Switzerland in reaction to omicron have caused the World Trade Organization to postpone its biennial meeting, originally set to begin Tuesday. One of the main agenda items for the gathering was improving the availability of COVID-19 vaccines.

Several of the ministers and delegates would not be able to attend the meeting because of the restrictions, Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala said. “This has not been an easy recommendation to make, she said. “But as Director-General, my priority is the health and safety of all MC12 participants – ministers, delegates and civil society.”

But some authorities have held out hope that early detection of the new variant, coupled with the new restrictions, could have a bigger impact than the initial response to delta variant, Jeffrey Barrett, director of COVID-19 Genetics at the Wellcome Sanger Institute in Hinxton, England, told The Associated Press.

“With delta, it took many, many weeks into India’s terrible wave before it became clear what was going on and delta had already seeded itself in many places in the world and it was too late to do anything about it,” he said. “We may be at an earlier point with this new variant, so there may still be time to do something about it.”

The South African government has called the travel restrictions “rushed” and raised concerns about the impact on business.

The CEO of South Africa’s inbound tourism association, David Frost, says the effects will be devastating on the sector.

“We got off the red list in October, and it was sorely needed. We’ve been shut down for over 18 months,” Frost said. “You know, the industry really is on its knees. The impact of this is absolutely dire to livelihoods, to families.”

South African Tourism Minister Lindiwe Sisulu told The New York Times that her country is feeling “punished” for the omicron research its scientists have done.

Dr. Michelle Groome, head of the Division of Public Health Surveillance and Response at South Africa’s National Institute for Communicable Diseases, said social distancing and mask use could help combat the virus, but she questioned the efficacy of travel bans.

“We haven’t been able to contain the spread initially of the original virus, and all subsequent variants have spread globally, you know,” Groome said. “I think there’s limited value in terms of these restrictions.”

Instead, she said, vaccinating more of the population would help prevent the most severe cases and deaths.

Low vaccination rates

Roughly 35% of the South Africa’s adult population is vaccinated, a figure far below targets of 70%.

Figures are even lower across much of the African continent.

Experts have warned vaccine inequality would create a breeding ground for virus mutations.

Astrid Haas is an independent urban economist in Kampala, Uganda.

“In Europe now and in North America, in particular, they’re talking about booster shots and third vaccines, whereas we know now from the WHO that less than 10% of African countries are going to even meet their vaccine target for this year. … Just a very sad manifestation of the global vaccine inequity,” she said.

In the absence of vaccinations, lockdowns may be on the horizon.

 

Source: Voice of America