More European countries find Omicron cases as concerns grow Coronavirus pandemic News

The United Kingdom, Germany and Italy have become the last countries to detect cases With the new omicron coronavirus variant, more nations imposed restrictions on travel from countries in southern Africa, despite protests and against advice from the World Health Organization (WHO).

Omicron, named a “variant of concern” According to the United Nations health agency, it is more contagious than previous variants, although experts still do not know whether COVID-19 will be more severe or more severe compared to other strains.

Two Omicron cases found in the UK on Saturday were linked to a trip to South Africa, British Health Minister Sajid Javid said.

Speaking later, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson set out measures that included stricter test rules for people arriving in the country, but in some settings they were restricted to social activity that required wearing masks.

“Anyone entering the UK will be asked to take a PCR test by the end of the second day and until self-isolation has a negative result,” Johnson said in a press conference.

People who contacted people positive for an alleged Omicron case would have to self-isolate for 10 days and the government would tighten rules for wearing face masks, Johnson said, and the steps would be reviewed in three weeks. .

The German state ministry of Bavaria also announced two confirmed cases of the variant. The two people entered Germany at Munich airport on November 24, before Germany designated South Africa as a virus variant area, and the ministry said they were now isolated, without explicitly stating that people had traveled from South Africa.

In Italy, the National Institutes of Health said they had detected a case of a new variant in Milan in a person from Mozambique.

Czech health authorities also said they were investigating an alleged case of a variant of a person who had been in Namibia.

Dutch health authorities, meanwhile, said Omicron was “probably” among some of the 61 passengers who tested positive after arriving on two flights from South Africa.

England’s chief medical officer, Chris Witty, said at the same press conference at Johnson that there was still a great deal of uncertainty about Omicron, but “there is a reasonable chance that this variant will at least have some degree of vaccine escape”.

Oksana Pyzik, of University College London School of Pharmacy, told Al Jazeera that scientists will need a few weeks to analyze the severity of the symptoms caused by Omicron.

“This variant was found very early on, and that’s great, but in exchange for that it’s going to take some time to understand more,” Pyzik said.

“If there’s one thing we’ve learned so far during the pandemic, it’s that early action is key, so if there’s been a false alarm, it has given countries enough time to prepare for the worst outcome, and that, if we go back. In March 2020, many countries didn’t.”

Travel restrictions

The variant was first discovered by South African scientists with several mutations that could pose a risk of infection, and has since been detected in Belgium, Botswana, Israel and Hong Kong.

The WHO has warned that it may take several weeks to find out if the newly discovered mutations make the virus more virulent or transmissible.

And while epidemiologists say it may be too late to stop moving Omicron around the world, many countries around the world – including the United States, Brazil, Canada and European Union nations – announced bans or restrictions on travel to South Africa on Friday.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the State Department added to the travel restrictions previously announced by Washington on Saturday, recommending travel to eight countries in southern Africa.

Also on Saturday, Australia said it would ban access to non-citizens who have been to nine countries in South Africa and would require Australian citizens returning from it to undergo 14 days of controlled quarantine.

The UK said it was expanding its “red list” to put restrictions on travel to more southern African countries, while South Korea, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Oman, Kuwait and Hungary announced travel restrictions for southern African nations.

In South Africa, there were concerns that travel restrictions could harm tourism and other sectors of the economy caused by the pandemic, prompting criticism from officials and scientists who said the measures were unjustified.

“The government says South Africa has been at the forefront of testing and monitoring changes to COVID-19, and scientists have stressed the importance of seeing what data for the new variant will show before making decisions,” said Al Jazeera’s Fahmida Miller. , Report from Johannesburg. “And that feeling has reached the general public, where many believe that South Africa is being treated unfairly.”

In a statement on Saturday, the South African Foreign Ministry said the move was “similar to the moves made by many countries to ban flights from South Africa” ​​after finding the variant. Punishing South Africa for its advanced genomic sequencing and its ability to detect new variants more quickly ”.

“Excellent science should be applauded and not punished,” he said.

The ministry said new variants were found in other parts of the world.

“Each of these cases has not had a final link to South Africa, but the reaction of these countries is completely different from the cases in South Africa,” he said.

Omicron was created because many European countries are facing the rise of COVID-19 infections, and some have imposed restrictions on social activity in an attempt to stop the spread. Austria and Slovakia have joined the blockades.

The discovery of the variant also affected sales in financial markets on Friday, as investors were worried that Omicron could halt a global recovery from a nearly two-year pandemic.