WHO tells Asia-Pacific Reuters to expand Omicron variant

MANILA (Reuters) – The World Health Organization (WHO) warned Asia-Pacific countries on Friday to increase their health capacity and prepare for their full integration of COVID-19 cases as the Omicron variant spreads worldwide despite travel restrictions.

Although it closed restrictions on travel from high-risk countries in southern Africa, Australia became the last country to report community transmission of the new variant, being found locally in five U.S. states and a day later.

Omicron began taking over Asia this week, with cases reported in India, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore and South Korea.

Many governments have tightened travel rules to keep the new variant out, but the WHO’s warning to Asia-Pacific, a region of about 650 million people, stressed that border controls can only buy time.

“People should not rely solely on border measures,” said Takeshi Kasai, the WHO’s director for the Western Pacific region, in a virtual media conference.

“The most important thing is to prepare for these highly transmissible variants. The information available so far suggests that we should not change our approach.”

Vaccination rates vary from country to country in Asia-Pacific, but there are worrying gaps. Indonesia, the fourth most populous country in the world and once the COVID-19 epicenter of Asia, has inoculated only about 35% of its 270 million population.

The Australian chief medical officer said Omicron is likely to become a major global variant in a few months, but there was no evidence at this stage that it was more dangerous than Delta, which expanded the world earlier this year.

“I am confident that (in the coming months) Omicron will be the new virus in the world,” Paul Kelly, Australia’s chief medical adviser, told reporters.

In the United States, the Biden administration introduced a set of measures to protect against the spread of the virus. From 12:01 on Monday ET (0501 GMT), international air passengers arriving in the United States will be required to pass a negative COVID-19 test within one day of the trip.

“We will fight this variant with science and speed, not with chaos and confusion,” President Joe Biden told Americans on Thursday in preparation for the rise in winter infections.

Less than 60% of the U.S. population, or 196 million people, are fully integrated, one of the lowest rates among the richest nations.

INFLATION FEARS

Travel restrictions have been tightened in Hong Kong, the Netherlands, Norway and Russia, among others, with new measures announced on Thursday. Malaysia said on Friday that the cuts would be further tightened.

In addition to wreaking havoc on the travel industry, the cuts have hit financial markets and weakened major economies as they began to recover from the blockades caused by the Delta.

Shares in India, Japan and South Korea fell after Friday night’s losses on Wall Street, but traders will have to wait at least another week for global health authorities ’responses to variant virulence or vaccine resistance.

Oil prices have risen, though they are on the verge of falling for the sixth week, amid concerns that demand could fall as a result of measures to sustain Omicron.

The change threatened to raise inflation in the United States by putting more pressure on supply chains and exacerbating labor shortages, Cleveland Federal Reserve Bank President Loretta Mester told the Financial Times.

Germany’s largest economy, Germany, said it would ban vaccine-free businesses from all essential businesses, and that legislation to make vaccination mandatory would be prepared early next year.

Several countries, including the United Kingdom and the United States, were presenting plans to offer booster plans, but, like travel bans, this is debatable. Australian authorities said on Friday that there was no “evidence” that such moves would be effective.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said that despite this uncertainty, the change could slow global economic growth by exacerbating supply chain problems and lowering demand.

“There is a lot of uncertainty, but it could cause a lot of problems. We are still evaluating that,” he told Reuters Next.

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