Variant fuels new wave of wariness
West tightens rules, but African nations decry travel bans
LONDON — The U.K. tightened up rules Saturday on mask-wearing and on testing of international arrivals after finding two cases of the new potentially more contagious omicron variant of the coronavirus.
The United Kingdom’s changes came as Nations in southern Africa protested bitterly on Saturday as more of the world’s wealthiest countries cut them off from travel, renewing a debate over border closures from the earliest days of the coronavirus pandemic and compounding the problems facing poorly vaccinated countries.
Amid fears that the recently identified new variant has the potential to be more resistant to the protection offered by vaccines, there are growing concerns around the world that the pandemic and associated lockdown restrictions will persist longer than hoped.
Australia, Thailand and Sri Lanka were among the latest countries on Saturday to join the United States, Britain and the European Union in banning travelers from South Africa and nearby countries — against the advice of the World Health Organization. Health officials in the Netherlands announced that 61 passengers on two flights from South Africa had tested positive for the virus.
The cascade of travel closures triggered a wave of resentment among African people who believed
that the continent was yet again bearing the brunt of panicked policies from Western countries, which had failed to deliver vaccines and the resources needed to administer them.
“It feels like these rich countries have learned absolutely nothing in terms of support,” said Francois Venter, a researcher at University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said it was necessary for the U.K. to take “targeted and precautionary measures” after two people tested positive for the new variant in England.
Among the measures announced, Johnson said
anyone arriving in England will be asked to take a mandatory PCR test for COVID-19 on the second day after their arrival and must self isolate until they provide a negative test. And if someone tests positive for the omicron variant, then he said their close contacts will have to self-isolate for 10 days regardless of their vaccination status.
He also said mask-wearing in shops and on public transport will be required and said the independent group of scientists that advises the British government on the rollout of coronavirus vaccines has been asked to accelerate the vaccination program,
potentially by expanding the numbers eligible for a booster jab or allowing older children to get a second dose of vaccine.
One of the two new cases was found in the southeastern English town of Brentwood, while the other is in the central city of Nottingham. The two cases are linked and involve travel from southern Africa.
The British government also added four more countries — Angola, Malawi, Mozambique and Zambia — onto the country’s travel red list from last week. Six others — Botswana, Eswatini (formerly known as Swaziland), Lesotho, Namibia, South Africa and Zimbabwe
— were added Friday.
Despite the banning of flights, there are mounting concerns that the variant has already been widely seeded around the world. In addition to the U.K., cases have been reported in travelers in Belgium, Israel and Hong Kong. Germany also said it suspected a positive case and Dutch authorities were testing whether 61 people who arrived on two flights from South Africa with COVID-19 have the omicron variant .
Italian authorities in the southern region of Campania were also investigating whether a person who recently returned home from southern Africa and who has tested positive for the virus was infected with the omicron variant.
The global health body has named the new variant omicron, labeling it a variant of concern because of its high number of mutations and some early evidence that it carries a higher degree of infection than other variants. That means people who contracted COVID19 and recovered could be subject to catching it again. It could take weeks to know if current vaccines are less effective against it.
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.
Some experts said the variant’s emergence illustrated how rich countries’ hoarding of vaccines threatens to prolong the pandemic.
Fewer than 6% of people in Africa have been fully immunized against COVID19, and millions of health workers and vulnerable populations have yet to get a single dose. Those conditions can offer opportunities for the virus to evolve into a dangerous variant.
“One of the key factors to emergence of variants may well be low vaccination rates in parts of the world, and the WHO warning that none of us is safe until all of us are safe and should be heeded,” said Peter Openshaw, a professor of experimental medicine at Imperial College London.