BRUSSELS (AP) – Nearly two years into the COVID-19 pandemic, the world raced to contain a new coronavirus variant on Friday that is more dangerous than the one that fueled relentless waves of infections on nearly every continent.
A World Health Organization panel named the variant “Omicron” and classified it as a highly transmissible virus of concern, the same category that includes the dominant delta variant, which still causes disease and death in Europe and parts of the world. is at high risk. , There are a crisis driving matters. United States of america.
“It’s spreading fast,” US President Joe Biden said of the new version, a day after millions of American families resumed Thanksgiving celebrations and realized that at least for vaccinations, normal life would return. Had been. Announcing the new travel restrictions, he told reporters, “I have decided that we are going to be cautious.”
The actual risks of Omicron are not understood. But early evidence suggests it carries an increased risk of reinfection compared to other highly transmissible variants, the WHO said. This means that people who have contracted and recovered from COVID-19 may be subject to catching it again. It may take weeks to know if existing vaccines are less effective against it.
In response to the discovery of the variant in southern Africa, the United States, Canada, Russia and several other countries joined the European Union to restrict travel for visitors from the region where the variant caused a new surge of infections. ,
The White House said that from Monday the US would ban travel to South Africa and seven other countries in the region. Biden said that means there is “no travel” to or from specified countries, except for US citizens and permanent residents who test negative.
People line up to board an Air France flight to Paris at OR Tambo’s airport in Johannesburg, South Africa, Friday 26 November 2021. (AP Photo/Jerome Delay)
Medical experts, including the WHO, warned against any redundancies before fully studying the version. But a panic-stricken world feared the worst after the virus spread due to the pandemic that has killed more than 5 million people worldwide.
“We must move quickly and as quickly as possible,” British Health Secretary Sajid Javid told MPs.
Omicron has now been observed in travelers from Belgium, Hong Kong and Israel as well as southern Africa.
There was no immediate indication whether the variant caused more severe disease. Like other types, some infected people show no symptoms, South African experts said. The WHO panel named a different omicron from the Greek alphabet, as has been done before, with the major variants of the virus.
Although some genetic changes appear to be worrisome, it was not clear how much of a threat they pose to public health. Some previous versions, such as the beta version, initially belonged to scientists, but did not spread very far.
Shares fell in Asia, Europe and the United States on fears of more pandemic-induced economic turmoil. The Dow Jones Industrial Average briefly fell over 1,000 points. The S&P 500 index closed down 2.3%, its worst day since February. The price of oil fell about 13%.
“The last thing we need is to bring a new version that will cause even more problems,” German Health Minister Jens Spahn said. The EU members of the 27 countries have recently experienced a huge increase in cases.
Britain, EU countries and some other countries began their travel restrictions on Friday, within hours of learning of the type. Asked why America was waiting until Monday, Biden said only: “Because it was my medical team’s recommendation.”
A medical worker in a booth takes a nose sample from a person at a temporary testing site in Seoul, South Korea, Wednesday, November 24, 2021 (AP Photo/Ah Young-joon).
EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said flights would have to be suspended until we had a clear understanding of the danger posed by this new version, and passengers returning from the region would be subject to stricter quarantine rules . There should be respect.”
She warned that “the mutation could lead to the emergence and spread of even more related forms of the virus that could spread worldwide within a few months.”
“It is a questionable variant,” said Health Minister Frank Vandenbrücke in Belgium, which became the first EU country to declare a case of the variant. “We don’t know if this is the very dangerous version.”
The US government’s top infectious disease expert, Dr. Anthony Fauci, said that omicrons have not yet been detected in the United States. Although it may be more permeable and resistant to vaccines than other types, “we just don’t know for sure,” he told CNN.
Speaking to reporters outside a bookstore on Nantucket Island where he was spending the holiday weekend, Biden said the new edition is “a big concern” that “should make clear more than ever that until we have a global Why is this epidemic not going to end until vaccination has not been done?
He called on unvaccinated Americans to obtain widely available doses and for governments to waive intellectual property protections for COVID-19 vaccines so that they can be manufactured more rapidly around the world.
Israel, one of the world’s most vaccinated countries, announced on Friday that it had also detected its first case of the new variant in a traveler who returned from Malawi. The passenger and two other suspected cases were kept in isolation. Israel said all three had been vaccinated, but officials were looking into the exact vaccination status of the passengers.
Prime Minister Naftali Bennett makes a statement on a new COVID-19 strain on November 26, 2021. (Screenshot: GPO)
After a 10-hour night journey, passengers aboard KLM Flight 598 from Cape Town in South Africa to Amsterdam were put on a special test for four hours at the edge of the runway at Schiphol airport on Friday morning. Passengers on a flight from Johannesburg were also isolated and tested.
“It’s ridiculous. If we hadn’t caught the dangerous bug earlier, we would have caught it now,” said traveler Francesca de Medici, a Rome-based arts consultant who was on the flight.
Some experts said the emergence of the variant suggests that hoarding of vaccines from wealthy countries threatens to prolong the pandemic.
Less than 6% of people in Africa are fully immunized against COVID-19, and millions of health workers and vulnerable populations have yet to receive a single dose. Those conditions can accelerate the spread of the virus, giving it more opportunities to develop into a dangerous form.
“This is one of the consequences of the disparity in vaccine rollout and the grabbing of surplus vaccines by wealthy countries will inevitably rebound on all of us,” said Michael Head, a senior research fellow in global health at the University of Southampton in the UK. , , he urged the group of 20 leaders to “go beyond vague promises and actually fulfill their commitments to share dietary supplements”.
The new version further raised investor concerns that months of progress in containing COVID-19 could be reversed.
“Investors are more likely to shoot first and ask questions later,” said Jeffrey Haley of forex broker Oanda.
The Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention discouraged any travel restrictions on countries in the new edition report. It said past experience shows that such travel restrictions “have not yielded meaningful results.”
The US sanctions will apply to visitors from South Africa, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Namibia, Lesotho, Eswatini, Mozambique and Malawi. The White House suggested the ban would reflect an earlier pandemic policy, which banned the entry of any foreigners who had traveled to designated areas in the past two weeks.
People line up for an overseas flight at OR Tambo International Airport in Johannesburg, South Africa, Friday, November 26, 2021. (AP Photo/Jerome Delay)
The UK banned flights from South Africa and five other southern African countries and announced that anyone who has recently arrived from those countries will be asked to take a coronavirus test.
Canada has banned the entry of all foreigners who have traveled to southern Africa in the past two weeks.
The Japanese government announced that Japanese citizens traveling from Eswatini, Zimbabwe, Namibia, Botswana, South Africa and Lesotho will be required to quarantine in government-dedicated accommodation for 10 days and undergo three COVID-19 tests during that time. Japan is not yet open to foreign nationals. Russia announced travel restrictions effective Sunday.