Omicron: The new variant “is not a cause for panic,” says Biden Coronavirus pandemic News

Joe Biden has asked Americans to get COVID-19 ownership global alarm Omicron is on top of the new variant of coronavirus, but the U.S. president says the strain should be considered “a cause for concern, not a cause for panic.”

In a statement to the White House on Monday, Biden said top U.S. health officials are consulting with major vaccine authors and preparing potential updates to account for them. Omicron mutations.

But he stressed that he is in a good position to control the country Expand the potential of Omicron For now, without resorting to blockages or further travel bans beyond the restrictions imposed in eight countries in southern Africa.

“This variant is a cause for concern, not a reason to panic,” he said. “If you’re vaccinated, but you’re worried about the new variant, get your booster. If you’re not vaccinated, take that shot. Go get that foreground.”

Biden added that Dr. Anthony Fauci expects his current medical adviser that current vaccines will work against the new variant, which will enhance the protection of the enhancers. “We will fight this variant with scientific and wise actions and speed, not with chaos and confusion,” he said.

US earlier this month spread a recommendation for booster-jabs to all adults, but 47 million U.S. adults have not yet been vaccinated, according to data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

The ban on travel to the U.S. from South Africa and seven other African nations came into force on Monday, as imposed by nations around the world. travel restrictions in recent days, amid concerns about Omicron.

“The point of the top [travel] the reduction is to give people time to get vaccinated, ”Biden said Monday.

So far no case of the Omicron variant has been reported in the US, but Fauci has warned that the virus is probably already present in the country.

Speaking on ABC’s Good Morning America program, Fauci said scientists hope to find out next week or twice how much the existing COVID-19 vaccines protect against the variant and how dangerous it is compared to previous strains.

“We really don’t know,” Fauci said, saying the speculation is “previous”.

Dr. Angelique Coetzee of the South African Medical Association, who first detected Omicron this month in South Africa, told Al Jazeera on Monday that people infected with the new strain so far have “very mild symptoms”, especially those who were vaccinated after August. .

The Omicron variant has been detected in more than 10 countries, including Canada, Australia, Portugal, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and Mozambique.

On Monday, the World Health Organization (WHO) he warned The global risk of Omicron’s spread was “very high” and it called on 194 member nations to accelerate vaccination of high-risk groups.

“Omicron has a large number of unprecedented mutations, some of which are worrying about the impact they could have on the pandemic’s trajectory,” the WHO said.

The Omicron variant is “highly transmissible” and needs “urgent action,” according to health ministers in Group Seven (G7), who praised the detection of the South African variant in a joint statement calling for the establishment of an international pathogen surveillance network. MOE.

They believe that the rise of the Omicron variant in countries with low access to vaccines validates previous warnings that the spread of the virus would lead to mutations and dangerous new variants.

“The inequality that has characterized the global response has come to its senses,” said Richard Hatchett, director general of the Coalition for Innovation in Preparing for Epidemics, at an assembly of WHO health ministers in Geneva.