Omicron virus cases trigger travel restrictions
The UAE and Australia imposed restrictions on travel from southern Africa yesterday after the discovery of a coronavirus variant called Omicron sparked global health concerns and a sell-off in the markets.
The UAE issued restrictions for travellers departing from or transiting through Botswana, Eswatini, Lesotho, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa and Zimbabwe. They will not be accepted for travel into Dubai until further notice. Omicron, described as a variant of concern by the World Health Organisation, was discovered in South Africa and cases were detected in Belgium, Botswana, Israel and Hong Kong.
UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced the return of masks in shops and on public transport after two cases were reported in England.
There was one suspected case in Germany. Omicron may be more contagious than other variants, although scientists said it was too early to tell how it will respond to the vaccines. The WHO convened a meeting of the World Health Assembly to develop a new accord for the international pandemic response.
“We will have more pandemics in the future. The question is not if, but when,” said Dr Jaouad Mahjour, the WHO assistant director general for emergency preparedness.
Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director general of the WHO, wants a treaty to end what he said was “neglect and panic”.
“The ongoing chaos of this pandemic only underlines why the world needs an iron-clad global agreement to set the rules,” he said.
Financial markets plunged on Friday, with stocks of airlines and others in the travel sector hit hard.
Investors said they were worried the variant could cause another surge in the pandemic and stall a global recovery.
Epidemiologists said travel restrictions may be too late to stop Omicron from circulating globally.
But on Friday, several countries, including the US, Brazil, Canada and EU member states, announced bans or restrictions on arrivals from nations in southern Africa.
Yesterday, Australia said it would bar non-citizens from entering if they have been in one of nine southern African countries, including South Africa and Malawi.
Authorities will also impose supervised 14-day quarantines for citizens and their dependents who have returned from any of the listed nations.
Japan said it would extend its border restrictions to six southern African countries, including Namibia. Sri Lanka, Thailand and Oman also announced travel curbs on nations in southern Africa.
Many countries in Europe are already battling a surge in infections and some have reintroduced restrictions on social activity to limit the spread.
Yesterday in the UK, the main opposition Labour Party called for the vaccine booster programme to be accelerated.The gap between the second dose and a booster should be cut from six months to five, it said.
“This new variant is a wakeup call,” said Labour’s junior health spokesman, Alex Norris. “We need to urgently bolster our defences to keep the virus at bay.”
Some experts said it could be some time before the extent of the threat posed by the latest variant became clear.
“I certainly thought [of] Delta as a peak variant, and probably it couldn’t get much worse than that. This looks potentially worse,” said Dr Danny Altmann, professor of immunology at Imperial College London.
But he said South Africa has not reported that Omicron cases were more severe and that those admitted to hospital in the country “tended to be the unvaccinated people”.