Omicron and Delta spell return of unpopular restrictions
US reports 1st case of Omicron variant in returning traveller
PARIS: Greeks who are over age 60 and refuse coronavirus vaccinations could be hit with monthly fines of more than one-quarter of their pensions a get-tough policy that the country's politicians say will cost votes but save lives.
In Israel, potential carriers of the new Omicron variant could be tracked by the nation's domestic security agency in seeming defiance of a Supreme Court ruling from the last go-round.
Weekly protests in the Netherlands over the country's 5 pm lockdown and other new restrictions have descended into violence, despite what appears to be overwhelming acceptance of the rules.
With the delta variant of COVID-19 pushing up cases in Europe and growing fears over the Omicron variant, governments around the world are weighing new measures for populations tired of hearing about restrictions and vaccines.
It's a thorny calculus made more difficult by the prospect of backlash, increased social divisions and, for many politicians, the fear of being voted out of office.
I know the frustration that we all feel with this Omicron variant, the sense of exhaustion that we could be going through this all over again,
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said Tuesday, two days after the government announced that masks would be mandatory again in stores and on public transportation and required all visitors from abroad to undergo a COVID19 test and quarantine.
We're trying to take a balanced and proportioned approach.
New restrictions, or variations on the old ones, are cropping up around the world, especially in Europe, where leaders are at pains to explain what looks like a failed promise: that mass vaccinations would mean an end to widely loathed limitations.
People need normality. They need families, they need to see people, obviously safely, socially distancing, but I really think, this Christmas now, people have had enough, said Belinda Storey, who runs a stall at a Christmas market in Nottingham, England.
In the Netherlands, where the curfew went into effect last week, mounted police patrol to break up demonstrations against the new lockdown, which is among the world's strictest. But most people appeared resigned to rush through errands and head home.
In Greece, residents over 60 face fines of 100 euros ( 113) a month if they fail to get vaccinated. The fines will be tacked onto tax bills in January.
About 17% of Greeks over 60 are unvaccinated despite various efforts to prod them to get their shots, and nine in 10 Greeks currently dying of COVID-19 are over 60.
I don't care whether the measure will cost me some extra votes in the elections, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said Wednesday after lawmakers passed the measure.
Employing a carrot instead of a stick, Slovakia's government is proposing to give people 60 and older a 500euro ( 568) bonus if they get vaccinated.
In Israel, the government this week approved resuming the use of a controversial phone-monitoring technology to perform contact tracing of people confirmed to have the Omicron variant.
Israeli rights groups have decried the use of the technology as a violation of privacy rights, and others have noted that its accuracy in indoor places is flawed, leading to large numbers of people being wrongly flagged. The Supreme Court earlier this year issued a ruling limiting its use.
In South Africa, which alerted the World Health Organization to the Omicron variant, previous restrictions included curfews and a ban on alcohol sales. This time, President Cyril Ramaphosa is simply calling on more people to get vaccines to help restore the social freedoms we all yearn for.
Germany on Thursday followed Austria's lead and locked down the unvaccinated, excluding them from nonessential stores, cultural and recreational venues. The legislature is expected to take up a general vaccine mandate in coming weeks.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel said the measures were necessary because hospitals risks becoming overloaded: The situation in our country is serious.
Infections have again topped 70,000 in a 24-hour period.
Officials have also agreed to require masks in German schools, impose new limits on private meetings
In the U.S., there is little appetite in either political party for a return to lockdowns or strict contact tracing. Enforcing even simple measures like mask-wearing has become a political flashpoint.
President Joe Biden, whose political fate may well hinge on controlling the pandemic, has used a combination of pressure and urgent appeals to induce people to get their first shots or a booster.
Meanwhile, the US recorded its first confirmed case of the omicron variant Wednesday in a vaccinated traveller who returned to California after a trip to South Africa as scientists around the world race to establish whether the new, mutant version of the coronavirus is more dangerous than previous ones.
The infected person was identified as a traveller who had returned from South Africa on Nov. 22, developed mild symptoms and tested positive for COVID-19 Monday. Researchers at the University of California, San Francisco obtained a sample from the patient Tuesday evening and worked feverishly overnight to assemble the genetic sequence.
And Chile never dropped its requirement to wear masks in public probably the most common renewed restriction around the world.