In this file photo taken on March 02, 2021 Nurse Salome Nkoana, acting operational manager of the COVID-19 ward at the Tembisa Hospital, puts on her personal protective equipment in Tembisa, South Africa. (GUILLEM SARTORIO / AFP)
MOSCOW / PRAGUE / DAR ES SALAAM / RABAT / NEW YORK / TRIPOLI / PARIS / OTTAWA / MILAN / ACCRA / GABORONE / LONDON / ROTTERDAM / CAIRO / JOHANNESBURG / KIGALI / AMSTERDAM / ZURICH / LISBON – BioNTech, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson are working on vaccines that specifically target Omicron in case their existing shots are not effective against the new coronavirus variant, the companies said on Monday.
The variant's emergence has triggered a strong global response as countries worried that it could spread fast even in vaccinated populations impose travel curbs and other restrictions.
BioNTech SE said it had started work on a vaccine tailored to Omicron, along with partner Pfizer.
Meanwhile, Moderna Inc said it could take months to begin shipping such a vaccine, Chief Executive Officer Stéphane Bancel told CNBC.
Bancel said the effectiveness of existing COVID-19 vaccines against the variant was currently not known, adding there should be more clarity in about two weeks.
Johnson & Johnson is also evaluating the effectiveness of its COVID-19 vaccine against Omicron, while also pursuing a vaccine specific to the variant.
"We have begun work to design and develop a new vaccine against Omicron and will rapidly progress it into clinical studies if needed," said Mathai Mammen, global head of research for J&J's pharmaceuticals unit.
A top South African infectious disease expert said Omicron appears to be more transmissible than previous variants, including to people with immunity from vaccination or prior infection.
A health worker receives a dose of the Oxford/AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine in Francistown, Botswana, on March 26, 2021. (MONIRUL BHUIYAN / AFP)
Botswana
Botswana has so far confirmed a total of 19 cases of the newly-discovered Omicron variant of COVID-19, a health official said Sunday evening.
Health Minister Edwin Dikoloti said at a briefing that additional assessments and analyses of other positive COVID-19 samples had revealed 15 more cases of the Omicron variant on Sunday morning, after four foreigners were declared infected last week.
"We will continue to expand our conduct tracing to ensure that no potential cases go undetected," Dikoloti said.
ALSO READ: Austria reports first suspected case of new COVID-19 variant
Canada
Two people in the Canadian capital city of Ottawa have tested positive for the highly transmissible Omicron variant of COVID-19, according to the Ontario provincial government on Sunday.
The two people recently traveled to Nigeria.
"Ottawa Public Health is conducting case and contact management and the patients are in isolation," according to a statement issued by Ontario Health Minister Christine Elliott and the province's Chief Medical Officer of Health Kieran Moore on Sunday.
On Friday, several countries, including Canada, announced travel restrictions for southern African countries
Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis (left) and newly appointed Czech Health Minister Adam Vojtech attend a press conference during the inauguration of Adam Vojtech on May 26, 2021 in Prague. (MICHAL CIZEK / AFP)
Czech Republic
Czech Health Minister Adam Vojtech said Sunday he has tested positive for COVID-19.
In a tweet, the minister said he was not feeling well "from Friday to Saturday," and went for a PCR test on Saturday.
The test result was positive, he said, adding he would start a 14-day isolation.
Egypt
Egypt authorized on Sunday Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine for children aged 12-15, the cabinet said in a statement.
The step effectively lowers the minimum age of eligibility to receive the two-shot vaccine in Egypt, which was 15 years old previously.
France
French President Emmanuel Macron published a Tweet on Monday to show he had got a COVID-19 vaccine booster shot, as France aims to accelerate its vaccination campaign to battle against a fifth wave of the virus.
Macron published on his official Twitter account a green tick next to the phrases “vaccine booster” and “vaccine against the flu.”
BFM TV and Le Figaro newspaper reported Macron had received his COVID-19 vaccine booster shot over the weekend.
Meanwhile, French Health Ministry reported Sunday night eight suspected Omicron COVID-19 cases among passengers who tested positive after their African trips over the past 14 days.
Eight positive COVID-19 cases "with a negative screening for the mutations found in the other variants (Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta)" require further confirmation by sequencing, French Health Ministry said in a press release, noting that it could take "several days."
France's neighboring countries have already reported confirmed Omicron COVID-19 cases.
Speaking to BFMTV Sunday morning, French Health Minister Olivier Veran said that "from the moment it (Omicron) circulated at our neighbors, it is possible that it's circulating at ours."
Ghana
Ghana will ramp up its COVID-19 inoculation campaign next month and make the vaccine mandatory for targeted groups including all public sector and health workers from Jan 22, health service director general Patrick Kuma-Aboagye said on Sunday.
The government will hold a vaccination drive in December after which the vaccine will be mandatory for employees in all arms of government, health workers, security personnel, staff and students of secondary and tertiary education, and commercial drivers, Kuma-Aboagye told a news conference.
He said proof of vaccination will also be needed for night clubs, beaches, sports stadiums and restaurants.
Only 21 percent of the targeted population have received the first dose, while 7 percent are fully vaccinated, health ministry data showed. Ghana has to date recorded 131,083 coronavirus cases and 1,220 deaths.
Kuma-Aboagye said the health ministry hopes to double daily vaccinations from over 142,000 currently as the country braces for a potential surge in cases after the holiday.
In this file photo taken on Oct 13, 2021, a professor and a nurse view the lung x-rays of a COVID-19 patient at the Casalpalocco hospital, south of Rome. (ALBERTO PIZZOLI / AFP)
Italy
Italy reported 47 coronavirus-related deaths on Sunday, against 90 the day before, the health ministry said, while the daily tally of new infections rose slightly to 12,932 from 12,877.
Italy has registered 133,674 deaths linked to COVID-19 since its outbreak emerged in February last year, the second-highest toll in Europe after Britain and the ninth-highest in the world. The country has reported 5 million cases to date.
Patients in hospital with COVID-19 – not including those in intensive care – stood at 4,964 on Sunday, up from 4,826 a day earlier.
There were 39 new admissions to intensive care units, down from 68 on Saturday. The total number of intensive care patients increased to 638 from 624.
Libya
The National Center for Disease Control of Libya on Sunday announced new travel restrictions against the new Omicron COVID-19 variant.
Travelers coming from countries where Omicron has been detected are requested to produce a negative PCR test within 48 hours, and also to remain in quarantine for 10 days, the center said.
It also recommended Libyans not to travel to countries where the new variant has been detected.
Morocco
Morocco will suspend all regular international passenger flights for two weeks over concern about the new COVID-19 variant Omicron.
The suspension will come into effect starting Monday's midnight, the Moroccan Monitoring Committee of COVID-19 said Sunday in a statement.
The decision has been taken due to the rapid spread of the Omicron variant, so as to preserve Morocco's achievements in managing pandemic, it added.
READ MORE: WHO says new strain is a variant of concern, names it Omicron
Signs warn shoppers of mandatory face mask and the need to respect social distancing in Nijmegen, eastern Netherlands on Nov 28, 2021. (PETER DEJONG / AP)
Netherlands
Dutch health authorities said on Sunday that 13 cases of the new Omicron coronavirus variant have been found in the Netherlands among passengers that were on two flights from South Africa that arrived on Friday.
They were among 61 passengers who tested positive for COVID-19 on the two flights, which carried about 600 people. Those who tested positive are being kept in isolation at a hotel near the airport.
"In our (virus) sequencing investigation, which is still ongoing, we have so far found 13 cases of the Omicron variant among the positive (passenger COVID-19) tests," the National Institute for Health (RIVM) said in a statement.
"It is not unlikely more cases will appear in the Netherlands," Health Minister Hugo de Jonge said at a press conference in Rotterdam. "This could possibly be the tip of the iceberg."
The Dutch investigation began with testing of all the people who arrived on the two flights from South Africa at Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport on Friday, before the Dutch government changed its rules on air traffic from southern Africa due to concerns over the variant.
Dutch health authorities are also seeking to contact and test some 5,000 other passengers who have traveled from South Africa, Botswana, Eswatini, Lesotho, Mozambique, Namibia or Zimbabwe since Monday.
Separately, Dutch military police said on Sunday they had arrested a married couple who left a hotel where they were in quarantine after testing positive for COVID-19, and were attempting to flee the country.
They were arrested "in an airplane that was about to depart," the police known as the Marechausse said in a statement.
It was unclear whether they had tested positive for the new Omicron coronavirus variant.
Amsterdam newspaper Het Parool reported that the couple, a Spanish man and Portuguese woman, were trying to fly to Spain.
The Marechausse statement said the pair, whose names and nationalities were not released, had been turned over to health authorities.
Portugal
Portugal detected 13 cases of the Omicron variant of the coronavirus on Monday, all involving players and staff members of Lisbon soccer club Belenenses SAD, after one player recently returned from South Africa, health authority DGS said.
The new variant, which according to the World Health Organisation is likely to "spread internationally", was found after Belenenses played a Primeira Liga match against Benfica on Saturday.
The game started with only nine Belenenses players on the pitch because the rest of their squad were isolating and only seven returned to the field after halftime. The match was abandoned two minutes into the second half with Benfica leading 7-0.
"We're all in isolation except for the youth team that didn't play on Saturday, 44 people are in isolation at home," a club spokesman, who is also self-isolating, said on Monday.
"Two or three players and two or three staff have symptoms, but nothing too serious, the rest are asymptomatic. Everyone is waiting to repeat the tests, as soon as the health authority authorises it," he added.
The presidents of Benfica and Belenenses told a news conference on Saturday they had no choice but to play the match or risked being punished for an "unjustified absence". They blamed the league and DGS for not allowing the game to be postponed.
Belenenses defender Cafu Phete tested positive for COVID-19 after returning last week from international duty in South Africa.
A DGS spokesperson has said it was not up to the health authority to postpone the game but to assess the COVID-19 situation and implement measures, such as self-isolation, to stop the spread of the disease.
Russia
Russia on Monday said it would be ready to provide booster shots to protect against the Omicron coronavirus variant if needed and the Kremlin said jittery market reaction to the new strain was emotional and not based on scientific data.
The heavily mutated Omicron variant sent investors scurrying for cover on Friday and the World Health Organization (WHO) has said it is likely to spread internationally, posing a very high risk of infection surges that could have severe consequences in some places.
Russia was quick to develop its two-dose Sputnik V vaccine last year and has also deployed a one-shot Sputnik Light vaccine, both of which have it says demonstrated high efficacy in trials, but are still awaiting WHO approval.
In addition, manufacturers have told Reuters that they have had difficulties producing the second dose of the vaccine, hampering efforts to boost output at home.
But Russia said on Monday its vaccine, developed by the Gamaleya Institute, would likely work against Omicron and that it would be ready to produce hundreds of millions of booster shots if not.
"Gamaleya Institute believes Sputnik V and Light will neutralize Omicron as they have highest efficacy versus other mutations," Kirill Dmitriev, head of the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF), which markets the vaccine overseas, said via the official Sputnik V Twitter account.
"In unlikely case a modification is needed, we will provide several hundred million of Sputnik Omicron boosters by Feb. 20, 2022," Dmitriev said.
Earlier, the Kremlin said more data was needed before conclusions could be drawn about the new variant.
"We see that the reaction on markets is emotional, it is not based on scientific evidence because there is none yet," Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters. "The whole world is currently trying to figure out how dangerous it is."
Russia registered 33,548 new coronavirus cases over the past 24 hours, taking the nationwide tally to 9,570,373, the official monitoring and response center said Sunday.
The nationwide death toll grew by 1,224 to 272,755, while the number of recoveries increased by 30,646 to 8,268,111.
Rwanda
Rwanda has temporarily suspended direct flights with southern African countries due to concerns over the new COVID-19 variant Omicron, according to a cabinet communique issued by the Office of the Prime Minister.
The decision was made late on Sunday after an extraordinary cabinet meeting on Rwanda's response to the Omicron variant chaired by President Paul Kagame, according to the communique.
"While the variant has not been detected in Rwanda, its effects are potentially dangerous and therefore Rwandans and residents of Rwanda are required to exercise extra vigilance in the practice and enforcement of preventive measures," the communique said.
A petrol attendant stands next to a newspaper headline in Pretoria, South Africa on Nov 27, 2021. (DENIS FARRELL / AP)
South Africa
With the Omicron variant now present in all provinces of South Africa, President Cyril Ramaphosa has raised the possibility that the country could enter the fourth wave soon if new cases continue to increase.
"The identification of Omicron coincides with a sudden increase in COVID-19 infections. If cases continue to rise, we can expect to see a fourth wave of infection in the next few weeks, if not sooner," Ramaphosa said in his televised speech on Sunday night.
His address to the nation followed a meeting of the Coronavirus Command Council after scientists recently discovered the new variant.
South Africa has had more than 2.96 million confirmed coronavirus infections, the most on the continent, with 2,858 new cases reported on Saturday, and the test positivity rate has reached 9.8 percent. Only 36 percent of South African adults are fully vaccinated against COVID-19.
While the new mutation is present in all nine provinces and its emergence has coincided with a spike in new cases, “we are still not sure how exactly it will behave going forward,” Ramaphosa said. We have taken “a decision not to take further restrictions at this stage,” he said.
"We have seen an average of 1,600 new cases in the last 7 days, compared to just 500 new daily cases in the previous week, and 275 new daily cases the week before that. The proportion of COVID-19 tests that are positive has risen from around 2 percent to 9 percent in less than a week," the president said.
"This is an extremely sharp increase in infections in a short period of time."
"We know that the variant is responsible for most of the infections found in Gauteng in the last two weeks and is now emerging in all other provinces," he added.
However, the government said it would be premature to reimpose stringent curbs because its impact still needs to be properly assessed.
The country will remain on virus alert level 1, the lowest, with alcohol bans, curfew hours and other measures to be reviewed in a week’s time, Ramaphosa said.
Ramaphosa said authorities were considering making COVID-19 shots compulsory for certain places and activities.
If the country does not consider the option of a vaccine mandate, it will "continue to be vulnerable to new variants and will continue to suffer new waves of infection", he said, adding that vulnerable people might also be offered booster shots.
Switzerland
The first probable case of the Omicron variant of COVID-19 has been detected in Switzerland, the government said late on Sunday, as the country tightened its entry restrictions to check its spread.
The case relates to a person who returned to Switzerland from South Africa around a week ago, the Federal Office for Public Health said on Twitter.
Testing will clarify the situation in the coming days, it added.
Tanzania
Tanzanian health authorities have issued an alert saying they are monitoring the reported new COVID-19 variant called Omicron that has already been identified in some African and European countries, a senior official said in a statement on Saturday night.
At the same time, Aiffelo Sichalwe, Chief Medical Officer in the Ministry of Health, Community Development, Gender, Elderly and Children, urged people to be vigilant over the imminent fourth wave of the virus pandemic.
He said authorities were monitoring about the new variant and they were taking measures aimed at preventing the fourth wave and the Omicron variant from getting into the country, including reinforcing tests at airports, ports and borders.
United Kingdom
Britain is moving towards offering everyone a COVID-19 booster vaccine, a member of Britain's vaccine advisory committee said on Monday, ahead of an expected decision on whether to extend and speed up booster shots.
"Inevitably, everybody will be offered a booster," Anthony Harnden, deputy chair of the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI), told BBC TV.
"But what we want to do is make sure that it's done in a sensible order so that those that are most vulnerable for this infection can get boosted and their natural immunity levels can go up."
Britain has recorded the third case of the newly identified Omicron coronavirus variant, the UK Health Security Agency said on Sunday, adding that the individual, who was no longer in Britain, was linked to travel to Southern Africa.
UKHSA said that while in Britain, the individual was in Westminster in central London.
"Our advanced sequencing capabilities enable us to find variants and take rapid action to limit onward spread," Jenny Harries, chief executive of UKHSA, said in a statement.
In another development, six cases of the COVID-19 Omicron variant of concern have been identified in Scotland, the Scottish government said on Monday, adding that public health officials were working to establish the circumstances of the cases.
"Public Health Scotland will undertake enhanced contact tracing in all cases," Scottish Health Secretary Humza Yousaf said. "This will help establish the origin of the virus and any further individuals they have come into contact with in recent weeks."
Anthony Fauci, US President Joe Biden's chief medical adviser, responds to questions by Senator Rand Paul during the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC on July 20, 2021. (J SCOTT APPLEWHITE / POOL / AFP)
United States
The United States needs to be prepared to do "anything and everything" to fight the Omicron COVID-19 variant, but it's still "too early to say" whether lockdowns or new mandates will be appropriate, said US infectious disease expert Anthony Fauci on ABC's This Week aired on Sunday.
"Inevitably, it will be here. The question is will we be prepared for it? If and when, and it's going to be when, it comes here hopefully we will be ready for it," said Fauci.
Fauci also told President Joe Biden on Sunday that it will take about two weeks to have definitive information on the new coronavirus variant Omicron that has sparked new travel restrictions and shaken financial markets.
Biden, returning to Washington following the Thanksgiving holiday weekend, was briefed in person by his coronavirus response team on Sunday afternoon as officials expect the new variant to reach the United States despite an impending ban on travelers from Southern Africa, where it was first detected.
Fauci said he believes existing vaccines are likely to provide "a degree of protection against severe cases of COVID", and officials reiterated their recommendation for vaccinated Americans to get booster shots, according to a readout of the briefing.
Meanwhile, Fauci, chief medical adviser to Biden, warned that the United States could potentially experience a fifth wave of coronavirus infections, but said increasing the number of Americans who are vaccinated against the virus and receive their booster shots could blunt its severity.
"We certainly have the potential to go into a fifth wave," Fauci said on CBS's Face the Nation aired on Sunday. "And the fifth wave, or the magnitude of any increase, if you want to call it that it will turn into a wave, will really be dependent upon what we do in the next few weeks to a couple of months."
This photograph taken on March 5, 2021 shows the flag of the World Health Organization (WHO) at their headquarters in Geneva amid the COVID-19 outbreak. (FABRICE COFFRINI / AFP)
WHO
The World Health Organization is urging caution after two South African health experts, including the doctor who first sounded the alarm about the Omicron variant, indicated that symptoms linked to the coronavirus strain have been mild so far.
The initial reported infections were among university students, WHO said, adding that younger patients tend to have milder symptoms.
“Understanding the level of severity of the Omicron variant will take days to several weeks,” WHO said in a statement, adding that “there is currently no information to suggest that symptoms associated with Omicron are different from those from other variants.”
South Africa, which first identified the new variant, currently has 3,220 people with the coronavirus infection overall, though there’s been no real uptick in hospitalizations, Barry Schoub, chairman of the Ministerial Advisory Committee on Vaccines, told Sky News on Sunday.
“The cases that have occurred so far have all been mild cases, mild-to-moderate cases, and that’s a good sign,” said Schoub, adding that it was still early days and nothing was certain yet.
The WHO said there was preliminary data showing increasing hospitalizations, “but this may be due to increasing overall numbers of people becoming infected, rather than a result of specific infection with Omicron.”
South Africa has been hit with a number of travel bans from the UK and other nations, after its scientists found the mutated variant last week. Since then, a growing number of European countries, along with Australia, have also identified people infected with the variant.
The large number of mutations found in the Omicron variant appears to destabilize the virus, which might make it less “fit” than the dominant delta strain, said Schoub.
Only about a third of South African adults are vaccinated.
Angelique Coetzee, chair of the South African Medical Association, called symptoms associated with the variant at this point “different and so mild” compared with others she’d treated for the virus in recent months.
WTO
The postponement of the World Trade Organization's ministerial conference this week all but guarantees months of deadlock on a bid to spread COVID-19 vaccines more widely.
Expectations of breakthroughs were already muted ahead of the gathering, which was postponed late on Friday after new Swiss travel restrictions due to the Omicron variant meant many planned face-to-face meetings could not happen.
No new date has been set.
Dmitry Grozoubinski, executive director of the Geneva Trade Platform think tank, said ministerial meetings were key to any agreements because they put together political decision-makers and created deadlines.
"It's a significant blow. The gaps on issues such as fisheries and IP parts of COVID-19 are political gaps. It's not a fatal blow though as they do plan to reconvene," he said.
WTO Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala said negotiations should not stop and that delegations in Geneva should seek to close as many gaps as possible.
"This new variant reminds us once again of the urgency of the work we are charged with," she said.
Delegations indeed did set to work on Monday to debate a proposal by India and South Africa to waive intellectual property (IP) rights for COVID-19 vaccines and treatments and an EU counter-proposal to use flexibilities in existing WTO rules.
Medecins Sans Frontieres said that the world could not waste more time, with millions of lives at stake.
"We call on countries opposing and diluting this waiver to today halt the stalling tactics and take urgent measures to adopt a comprehensive waiver," it said.
The Omicron discovery supports one of the arguments of waiver proponents that failing to supply vaccines to the globe increases the risk of potentially dangerous new variants of the coronavirus emerging.
US President Joe Biden reiterated his belief in a waiver of IP protections for vaccines, saying the news of the new variant raised the importance of moving quickly.
