A growing wave of new restrictions spawned by the discovery of the Omicron coronavirus variant in South Africa is underway. But the United States is waiting until Monday to implement its own flight bans.
The omicron variant allegedly has the potential to be more resistant to any protection offered by vaccines. News of its existence has roiled stock markets and caused travel destinations to reassess capacities, with fears of new lockdown measures looming over all.
Already, the UK, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Iran, Japan, Thailand and the European Union have imposed restrictions on southern African countries in response to warnings over the transmissability of the new variant. Protections include flight bans, quarantine rules and the usual social distancing and mask requirements.
Despite the precautions, cases have already been reported in travelers to Belgium, Israel, and Hong Kong.
Today, Britain confirmed two linked cases of the new omicron variant. The UK just announced new travel measures to combat the variant. It now requires that travelers must take a PCR test and quarantine on arrival until a negative result is returned
Germany indicated it likely has one case. Dutch authorities are also checking for the new variant after 61 passengers on two flights from South Africa tested positive for COVID-19.
Omicron is causing concern because of its high number of mutations and belief that it carries a higher degree of infection. The fear is that it is resistant to existing vaccines and could cause “breakthrough” cases on those already vaccinated. Because of long incubation periods, it could be weeks before a determination is made. That comes at one of the busiest travel times of the year across the planet.
US President Joe Biden said Friday of the new variant told reporters, “I’ve decided that we’re going to be cautious.” The US will restrict travel from South Africa and seven other nearby countries beginning Monday.
White House adviser Dr. Anthony Fauci said the travel blocks “is to just give us time to assess it better. That’s the reason for doing that, not any reason to panic, but we want to give us some time to really fill in the blanks of what we don’t know right now.”
Health officials worldwide were concerned about the variant’s swift spread among young people in South Africa, even though there was no immediate indication whether the variant causes more severe disease.
A number of pharmaceutical firms, including AstraZeneca, Moderna, Novavax and Pfizer, said they have plans in place to adapt their vaccines in light of the emergence of omicron. Pfizer and its partner BioNTech said they expect to be able to tweak their vaccine in around 100 days.
