WHO warns of Omicron risk, travel restrictions tighten, Biden calls for vaccine Reuters

By Stephanie Nebehay and Alexander Winning

GENEVA / JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) – The World Health Organization (WHO) said on Monday that a variant of the Omicron coronavirus has a very high risk of rising infections, and that more countries’ borders are shutting down a two-year economic recovery from the pandemic.

Large airlines acted quickly to protect their hubs by limiting passenger travel https://www.reuters.com/world/travellers-edge-countries-tighten-rules-due-omicron-fears-travel-agents-2021-11-29 from South Africa, where the new Omicron variant was first detected, fearing that the spread of the variant would result in restrictions from other destinations beyond the affected regions immediately, industry sources said.

But carriers ’shares rebounded with the rest of the market after Friday’s failure on Monday, as the variant could have been softer than initially thought when expectations grew.

President Joe Biden https://www.reuters.com/world/us/fauci-says-new-us-restrictions-amid-omicron-unlikely-2021-11-29 asked Americans not to panic and said the United States was working if you need new vaccines to make contingency plans with your pharmaceutical companies.

Biden said the country would not return to the blockades in the winter, but asked people to get vaccinated, take promoters and wear masks.

“This variant is a cause for concern, not a cause for panic,” Biden said after a meeting with his COVID-19 team at the White House. “We’re going to fight this new variant and win.”

The United States has blocked entry for most visitors from eight countries in southern Africa. Biden said the travel restrictions will give the U.S. time to get more people vaccinated.

Vaccine doubts in the United States and elsewhere have thwarted attempts to control the virus by public health officials.

On Monday, a federal judge ruled that the Biden administration was likely to exceed vaccination requirements for health care workers.

The WHO warned its 194 member nations that the rise in infections could have serious consequences, but said there were still no deaths with the new variant.

“Omicron has an unprecedented number of mutations, some of which are worrying about the impact they could have on the pandemic’s trajectory,” the WHO said. “The overall global risk associated with the new variant of Omicron concern is assessed as very high.”

NEED MORE RESEARCH

Further research was needed to understand Omicron’s ability to escape the protection against immunity caused by vaccines and previous infections, he added.

An infectious disease expert in South Africa, where scientists first identified Omicron, said it was too early to say whether the symptoms were more severe than previous variants, but the variant appeared to be more transmissible.

Expert Salim Abdool Karim, also a professor at the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University in New York, said existing vaccines were probably effective in preventing Omicron from causing serious illness. Scientists said it would take weeks to understand the severity of Omicron.

South African cases are likely to exceed 10,000 a day this week, up from just under 300 a day two weeks ago, Karim added.

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa denounced “unjustified and unscientific” travel bans that harm tourism-dependent economies.

The Health Ministers of the Seven Wealthy Nations praised South Africa for its “exemplary work” in detecting the variant and warning others.

JITTERY MARKETS

Fears that the new variant could be resistant to vaccines helped wipe out about $ 2 trillion from world stock markets on Friday, but markets calmed down on Monday, even after Japan said it would close its borders to foreigners. [MKTS/GLOB]

U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo said it was too early to say whether Omicron would affect global supply chains, as it was already fighting the pandemic.

The possibility of a rapidly expanding variant has sparked fears of a return to cuts that will close part of the industry by 2020.

“This is new,” said Nissan (OTC 🙂 Motor Co. U.S. spokeswoman Lloryn Love-Carter. “We’re tracking it, of course, but we still have fairly strict COVID protocols in place.”

Passengers stopped at Johannesburg International Airport said they felt helpless as flights to South Africa were canceled. “We don’t know what to do, we are waiting here,” said Ntabiseng Kabeli, from Lesotho.

Portugal found 13 cases of the variant at a football club in Lisbon. Spain, Sweden, Scotland and Austria also reported their first cases.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres expressed concern that the restrictions would isolate countries in southern Africa.

“People in Africa cannot be blamed for the immorally low level of vaccines available in Africa – and should not be punished for identifying and sharing crucial science and health information with the world,” he said.

Guterres has long warned of the risks of vaccine inequalities and the risk of low immunization rates for breeding for varieties.

More than 261 million people have been infected with coronaviruses in more than 210 countries since the first cases were identified in China in December 2019, killing 5,456,515, according to a Reuters count.

The new variant was found in many parts of Europe as they were suffering from the fourth wave of coronavirus infections, with more people gathering indoors in colder weather.

Christine Lagarde, head of the European Central Bank, tried to reassure investors that the eurozone could face it.

“We are all better prepared to respond to the risk of a fifth wave or the Omicron variant,” he told Italian broadcaster RAI on Sunday night.