Brussels: Nearly two years into the COVID-19 pandemic, the world has raced to contain a new coronavirus variant potentially more dangerous than the one that has fuelled relentless waves of infection on nearly every continent.
A World Health Organization panel named the variant Omicron (B.1.1.529) and classified it as a highly transmissible virus of concern, the same category that includes the predominant delta variant, which is still a scourge driving higher cases of sickness and death in Europe and parts of the United States.
It seems to spread rapidly, US President Joe Biden said of the new variant, only a day after celebrating the resumption of Thanksgiving gatherings for millions of American families and the sense that normal life was coming back at least for the vaccinated. In announcing new travel restrictions, he told reporters, I've decided that we're going to be cautious.
Omicron's actual risks are not understood. But early evidence suggests it carries an increased risk of reinfection compared with other highly transmissible variants, the WHO said. That means people who contracted COVID-19 and recovered could be subject to catching it again. It could take weeks to know if current vaccines are less effective against it.
Travel restrictions reimposed
In response to the variant's discovery in southern Africa, the United States, Canada, India, Russia and a host of other countries joined the European Union in restricting travel for visitors from that region, where the variant brought on a fresh surge of infections.
The White House said the US will restrict travel from South Africa and seven other countries in the region beginning Monday. Biden said that means no travel to or from the designated countries except for returning US citizens and permanent residents who test negative.
Medical experts, including the WHO, warned against any overreaction before the variant was thoroughly studied. But a jittery world feared the worst after the tenacious virus triggered a pandemic that has killed more than five million people around the globe.
"We must move quickly and at the earliest possible moment," British Health Secretary Sajid Javid told lawmakers.
Omicron has now been seen in travellers to Belgium, Hong Kong and Israel, as well as in southern Africa.
Britain, EU countries and some others introduced their travel restrictions Friday, some within hours of learning of the variant. Asked why the US was waiting until Monday, Biden said only: "Because that was the recommendation coming from my medical team.''
EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said flights will have to be suspended until we have a clear understanding about the danger posed by this new variant, and travellers returning from this region should respect strict quarantine rules.
She warned that mutations could lead to "the emergence and spread of even more concerning variants of the virus that could spread worldwide within a few months."
Fear and panic
"There was no immediate indication whether the variant causes more severe disease. As with other variants, some infected people display no symptoms," South African experts said. The WHO panel drew from the Greek alphabet in naming the variant Omicron, as it has done with earlier, major variants of the virus.
Even though some of the genetic changes appear worrisome, it was unclear how much of a public health threat it posed. Some previous variants, like the beta variant, initially concerned scientists but did not spread very far.
Fears of more pandemic-induced economic turmoil caused stocks to tumble in Asia, Europe and the United States. The Dow Jones Industrial Average briefly dropped more than 1,000 points. The S&P 500 index closed down 2.3 per cent, its worst day since February. The price of oil plunged about 13 per cent.
"The last thing we need is to bring in a new variant that will cause even more problems," German Health Minister Jens Spahn said. Members of the 27-nation EU have experienced a massive spike in cases recently.
"It's a suspicious variant," said Frank Vandenbroucke, health minister in Belgium, which became the first European Union country to announce a case of the variant. "We don't know if it's a very dangerous variant."
"Omicron has yet to be detected in the United States," said Dr. Anthony Fauci, the US government's top infectious disease expert. Although it may be more transmissible and resistant to vaccines than other variants, "we don't know that for sure right now," he told CNN.
Speaking to reporters outside a bookstore on Nantucket Island, where he was spending the holiday weekend, Biden said the new variant was "a great concern that should make clearer than ever why this pandemic will not end until we have global vaccinations."
He called anew for unvaccinated Americans to get their widely available doses and for governments to waive intellectual property protections for COVID-19 vaccines so they can be more rapidly manufactured around the world.
Israel, one of the world's most vaccinated countries, announced Friday that it also detected its first case of the new variant in a traveller who returned from Malawi. The traveller and two other suspected cases were placed in isolation. Israel said all three were vaccinated, but officials were looking into the travellers' exact vaccination status.
After a 10-hour overnight trip, passengers aboard KLM Flight 598 from Capetown, South Africa, to Amsterdam were held on the edge of the runway Friday morning at Schiphol airport for four hours pending special testing.
