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Variant Spreads to More Countries 11/28 08:41
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.
LONDON (AP) -- 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 -- onto 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 its 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.
A number of 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."
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