Africa-Press – Liberia. The Omicron variant of the coronavirus has been reported in a number of European countries as governments around the world scramble to stop the spread. New cases have been confirmed in Germany and Italy, with Belgium, Israel and Hong Kong also reporting that the variant has been found in travellers.
In the US, Dr Anthony Fauci, the government’s top infectious diseases expert, said he would not be surprised if the Omicron variant was already in the country.
“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,” Dr Fauci said.
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.
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.
Many countries have slapped restrictions on various southern African countries over the past couple of days, including Australia, Brazil, Canada, the EU, Iran, Japan, New Zealand, Thailand and the US, in response to warnings over the transmissibility of the new variant.
This goes against the advice of the World Health Organisation (WHO), 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.
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