People walk outside XL Schiphol test pavilion after Dutch health authorities said that 61 people who arrived in Amsterdam on flights from South Africa tested positive for COVID-19, in Amsterdam, Netherlands.EVA PLEVIER/Reuters
The Omicron coronavirus variant spread around the world on Sunday, with new cases found in the Netherlands, Denmark and Australia even as more countries imposed travel restriction to try to seal themselves off.
The World Health Organization (WHO) said it is not yet clear whether Omicron, first detected in Southern Africa, is more transmissible than other variants, or if it causes more severe disease.
“Preliminary data suggests that there are increasing rates of hospitalization in South Africa, but this may be due to increasing overall numbers of people becoming infected, rather than a result of specific infection,” WHO said.
WHO said understanding the level of severity of Omicron “will take days to several weeks.”
The detection of Omicron triggered global alarm as governments around the world scrambled to impose new travel restriction and markets sold-off, fearing the variant could resist vaccinations and upend a nascent economic reopening after a two-year global pandemic.
As Omicron pops up in Canada, several other countries, danger of vaccine inequity comes into focus
What we know so far about the new COVID-19 variant first identified in South Africa
In its statement, the WHO said it was working with technical experts to understand the potential impact of the variant on existing countermeasures against COVID-19, including vaccines.
Britain said it will convene an urgent meeting of G7 health ministers on Monday to discuss the developments.
Dutch health authorities announced that the 13 cases of the variant were found among passengers who were on flights from South Africa that arrived in Amsterdam on Friday.
Authorities had tested all of the more than 600 passengers on those two flights and had found 61 coronavirus cases, going on to test those for the new variant.
“This could possibly be the tip of the iceberg,” Health Minister Hugo de Jonge told reporters in Rotterdam.
In France, its Health Ministry said it has detected eight possible cases of the variant. It said in a statement that the people who might be infected had come into France from southern Africa but that it would still take several days to fully confirm the cases.
Omicron, dubbed a “variant of concern” last week by the World Health Organization that is potentially more contagious than previous variants, has now been detected in Canada, Australia, Belgium, Botswana, Britain, Denmark, Germany, Hong Kong, Israel, Italy, the Netherlands and South Africa.
In Canada, the Ontario government said it has detected the first two known cases of the variant linked to travel from Nigeria. The two cases are in Ottawa and linked to recent travel from Nigeria, according to a statement on Sunday from Health Minister Christine Elliott and Kieran Moore, Ontario’s Chief Medical Officer of Health.
Many countries have imposed travel bans or curbs on southern Africa to try to stem the spread. Financial markets dived on Friday, and oil prices tumbled.
In Japan, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida announced Monday it will suspend entry of all foreign visitors from around the world as a new coronavirus variant spreads. The measure will take effect Tuesday. The decision means Japan will restore border controls that it eased earlier this month for short-term business visitors, foreign students and workers.
A South African doctor who was one of the first to suspect a different coronavirus strain said on Sunday that symptoms of the Omicron variant were so far mild and could be treated at home.
Angelique Coetzee, chair of South African Medical Association, told Reuters that unlike with Delta, so far patients have not reported loss of smell or taste and there has been no major drop in oxygen levels with the new variant.
Israeli measures
In the most far-reaching effort to keep the variant at bay, Israel announced late on Saturday it would ban the entry of all foreigners and reintroduce counterterrorism phone-tracking technology to contain the spread of the variant.
Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said the ban, pending government approval, would last 14 days. Officials hope that within that period there will be more information on how effective vaccines are against Omicron.
International check-in counters at O.R. Tambo International Airport in Johannesburg stand empty as several airlines stopped flying out of South Africa, amidst the spread of the new SARS-CoV-2 variant Omicron.SUMAYA HISHAM/Reuters
The top U.S. infectious disease official, Anthony Fauci, said Americans should be prepared to fight the spread of the new variant, but that it was not yet clear what measure such as mandates or lockdowns would be needed. He has said the variant is likely already in the country, although no cases have been confirmed.
In Britain, where two linked cases of Omicron identified on Saturday were connected to travel to southern Africa, the government announced measures to try to contain the spread, including stricter testing rules for people arriving in the country and requiring mask wearing in some settings.
British Health Minister Sajid Javid said on Sunday he expected to receive advice imminently on whether the government can broaden a program of providing booster shots to fully vaccinated people, to try to weaken the impact of the variant.
Travel bans criticized
More countries announced new travel curbs on southern African nations on Sunday, including Indonesia and Saudi Arabia.
The South African government has denounced the travel measures as unfair and potentially harmful to its economy, saying it is being punished for its scientific ability to identify coronavirus variants early.
South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa said on Sunday that his government was considering imposing compulsory COVID-19 shots for people in certain places and activities, and he slammed rich Western countries for their knee-jerk imposition of travel bans.
“The prohibition of travel is not informed by science, nor will it be effective in preventing the spread of this variant,” Ramaphosa said. “The only thing (it) … will do is to further damage the economies of the affected countries and undermine their ability to respond to … the pandemic.”
Omicron has emerged as many countries in Europe are already battling a surge in COVID-19 infections, with some reintroducing restrictions on social activity to try to stop the spread.
The new variant has also thrown a spotlight on huge disparities in vaccination rates around the globe. Even as many developed countries are giving third-dose boosters, less than 7 per cent of people in poorer countries have received their first COVID-19 shot, according to medical and human rights groups.
Global authorities reacted with alarm on Friday to a new coronavirus variant detected in South Africa, with the EU and Britain among those tightening border controls as researchers sought to find out if the mutation was vaccine-resistant.
Reuters
With a report from The Associated Press and The Globe and Mail
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