A passenger holds his mobile phone while looking at an electronic flight notice board displaying cancelled flights at OR Tambo International Airport in Johannesburg on Nov 27, 2021, after several countries banned flights from South Africa following the discovery of a new COVID-19 variant Omicron. (PHILL MAGAKOE / AFP)
PARIS / HAVANA / MONTREAL / JOHANNESBURG / WASHINGTON / LUANDA / LONDON / MADRID / QUITO / BRUSSELS / OSLO / GENEVA – Travel bans to try and stop the Omicron strain from spreading are a “mistake” and pose a greater risk to African economies than the threat of the virus itself, according to the head of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa.
The restrictions could push more people in the continent into poverty, said Vera Songwe, Uneca’s executive director. The agency was already estimating that 70 million jobs would be lost because of the pandemic, she said.
World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus voiced concern on Tuesday that some states are introducing blanket measures aimed at the Omicron variant that he said were "not evidence-based or effective on their own" and were penalizing southern African countries that reported the strain so quickly.
World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus voiced concern on Tuesday that some states are introducing blanket measures aimed at the Omicron variant that he said were "not evidence-based or effective on their own" and were penalizing southern African countries that reported the strain so quickly
In a speech to the WHO's 194 member states, Tedros urged them to take "rational, proportional risk-reduction measures" in keeping with the agency's 2005 International Health Regulations.
"We still have more questions than answers about the effect of Omicron on transmission, severity of disease, and the effectiveness of tests, therapeutics and vaccines," Tedros said in remarks posted on the WHO website.
The Omicron strain was first sequenced in southern Africa prompting a flurry of travel bans to at least eight countries on the continent, hitting their beleaguered tourism industries ahead of the year-end holiday season.
While Western nations are quickly moving to give additional inoculations as new variants emerge, unavailability of vaccines has resulted in less than 7 percent of the population in Africa receiving full doses.
“Countries don’t want to lock down so they prefer to shut others out,” Songwe said in an interview. “We should avoid making the same mistake we made with the vaccine, which is sort of saying let’s just protect ourselves, but unfortunately, let’s shut Africa out.”
The WHO said on Monday that the Omicron variant carried a “very high” risk of infection surges, owing to its number of genetic mutations compared with previous strains, adding that South Africa and Botswana should be “applauded and not punished.”
“More importantly, overall growth on the continent will be stymied,” Songwe said. “I think it’s understandable that the reaction on the continent is a little bit baffled by the fact that all of the countries in southern Africa are now facing a travel ban.”
The rush to close borders — Japan and Israel completely shut out overseas visitors — prompted Uday Kotak, the world’s richest banker, to tweet that “policy makers worldwide will shoot from the hip in crisis management without data.”
Angola
Angola received on Monday 3.58 million doses of Sinopharm vaccine, which will boost the efforts of vaccination of citizens against COVID-19 in the country, an official announced.
Speaking to the press, the Secretary of State for Health for the hospital area, Leonardo Inocencio, underlined that the country expects to get 32 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines by the first quarter of 2022.
The official said the goal is to vaccinate, by the end of the year, 60 percent of the target population.
People wear face masks as they walk, in Regent Street, in London on Nov 28, 2021. (AP Photo/Alberto Pezzali)
Britain
New mask mandates and other measures aimed at curbing the spread of the Omicron coronavirus variant came into force in England on Tuesday, as Prime Minister Boris Johnson eyes an expanded booster program to help increase protection against COVID-19.
From Tuesday morning, face masks are compulsory on transport and in shops, banks and hair salons.
All international travellers must take a PCR test by the end of the second day after they arrive, and self-isolate until they get their result. That is in addition to restrictions on arrivals from 10 southern African countries, who have to enter hotel quarantine.
Britain has reported 11 cases of the Omicron variant so far, and while the government says this number will rise, it says it is important to slow its spread until more is known about the variant's tranmissibility and impact on vaccines.
"The measures taking effect today are proportionate and responsible, and will buy us time in the face of this new variant," Johnson said in a statement.
"Not only will today's steps help us slow down the variant's spread, but they will help us protect each other and the gains we have all worked so hard for."
Johnson has said the measures will be reviewed after three weeks, but added that the country's vaccine rollout leaves it in a better situation than this time last year, when restrictions were introduced shortly before Christmas.
Meanwhile, there is no sign of a surge of the Omicron coronavirus variant in Britain so far, the chief of the UK Health Security Agency said on Tuesday, saying there was no rise in the proportion of tests with a quirk that distinguishes it from Delta.
Jenny Harries said there were five confirmed Omicron cases in England and 10 "highly likely" cases, but that was not a sign of an increase in "S-gene target failure" in PCR tests in Britain, which is a feature of Omicron.
"Right across the country we watch for … S-gene target failure, which is a sort of proxy measure," Harries told BBC radio. Cases with S-gene target failure can then be prioritised for full genomic sequencing.
"We have seen no significant rise from the normal 1-in-1000 cases that we would normally have. So we're not seeing that surge currently."
Canada
A further two cases of the Omicron coronavirus variant have been detected in Ottawa, bringing Canada's total number of cases to five, Ottawa Public Health said late on Monday.
Earlier in the day, Quebec discovered its first COVID-19 case of the variant, health officials said.
Quebec Health Minister Christian Dube also told reporters that 115 travelers coming from countries affected by the new variant, primarily South Africa, were called and asked to isolate and test for COVID-19.
The arrival of the new variant ahead of the Christmas holiday season comes as Quebec faces a recent increase in cases, mostly in the unvaccinated, Dube said. In the last 24 hours Quebec reported 756 new cases.
Dube urged travelers to rethink holiday trips and warned against large celebrations. The province limits gatherings in private homes to 10 people.
ALSO READ: WHO: Omicron poses 'very high' global risk, nations must prepare
Cuba
Cuba will ratchet up restrictions from Dec 4 on passengers from certain African countries over concerns about the Omicron coronavirus variant, the country's Communist-run government said on Monday.
Travelers arriving from South Africa, Botswana, Lesotho, Eswatini, Zimbabwe, Namibia, Malawi, and Mozambique will be allowed to enter Cuba, the country's health ministry said, but will be required to comply with multiple precautionary measures, including proof of vaccination, three PCR tests and a seven-day quarantine.
Travelers from other sub-Saharan African nations, as well as Belgium, Israel, Hong Kong, Egypt and Turkey will be required to take two PCR tests, the ministry said.
Concerns over the Omicron variant are flaring in Cuba just two weeks after the Caribbean island nation reopened its borders to international visitors.
Cuba, whose economy depends on tourism, eased entry requirements after inoculating most of its people with a COVID-19 vaccine developed domestically. New infections have dropped off sharply in recent weeks, as have deaths from COVID-19.
Ecuador
Ecuador will impose entry restrictions on travelers flying from or via a number of African countries and will request vaccine certificates from those arriving from other countries due to the new Omicron strain of coronavirus, President Guillermo Lasso said on Monday.
The new measures will come into effect from Dec 1.
Anyone who has traveled from or through South Africa – where the Omicron strain was first detected – Botswana, Egypt, Mozambique, Lesotho, Zimbabwe, Eswatini and Namibia will not be allowed to enter the country, Ecuador's government said.
Travelers from the rest of the world will need to present a complete vaccination certificate and a PCR test taken within the last 72 hours to enter the Andean country, Lasso added.
Children aged between two and 16 years must also present a negatcive COVID-19 test on their arrival.
This file photo dated April 20, 2021 shows an exterior view of the European Medicines Agency (EMA) in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. (PETER DEJONG / FILE / AP)
European Medicines Agency (EMA)
The EU drug regulator could approve COVID-19 vaccines that have been adapted to target the new variant within three to four months if needed, the agency's chief said on Tuesday as she said existing shots would continue to provide protection.
Speaking to the European Parliament, European Medicines Agency (EMA) executive director Emer Cooke said it was not known if drugmakers would need to tweak their vaccines to protect against Omicron, but the agency was preparing for that possibility.
"Even if the new variant becomes more widespread, the vaccines we have will continue to provide protection," she said.
EU
The European Union's health commissioner has urged governments to boost efforts to detect coronavirus mutations, as some lag behind even as the new Omicron variant is detected around the bloc.
The variant first found in southern Africa has now been identified in several European countries, but it is hard to track its spread as various countries do not carry out sufficient genome sequencing of positive samples.
"Certain Member States lag behind considerably in terms of this crucial dimension," Stella Kyriakides said in a letter seen by Reuters to health ministers of the 27 EU countries.
She urged all member states to do more.
Genomic sequencing decodes genes in the SARS-CoV-2 genome to tell scientists which variant might be present, allowing them to monitor mutations and learn more about the virus.
Kyriakides did not name the laggards, but data from the European Centre for Disease prevention and Control (ECDC) show that in the first half of November seven EU countries did not sequence at a sufficient level. They were Finland, Greece, Czech Republic, Slovenia, Cyprus, Lithuania and Ireland.
Belgium, the first European country to detect the Omicron variant, identified the case by sequencing just 3 percent of positive tests, and has a capacity for about 10 percent, in line with many other EU states, the virologist who spotted the variant there, Marc Van Ranst, told Reuters.
In the Nov 29 letter, Kyriakides urged ministers to vaccinate faster and offer boosters urgently.
"Already faced with a challenging winter due to the high transmissibility of the Delta variant (..) we may now experience further or additional pressures because of the appearance of the Omicron variant," she wrote.
Kyriakides also encouraged national authorities to test more people both with molecular and rapid tests. Testing identifies infected individuals and is also the first step before sequencing.
"The monitoring of waste water has also proven to be an effective tool providing key insights, and needs to be leveraged in the diagnostic effort," she added.
A medical staff member prepares a syringe with a dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech (Comirnaty) COVID-19 vaccine, in the Lyon Gerland vaccination center, on Nov 27, 2021. (JEFF PACHOUD / AFP)
France
A person has tested positive for the new Omicron variant of the coronavirus on the French Indian Ocean island of La Reunion, media reported on Tuesday, citing an official researcher on the island.
French media added the person was a 53-year old man who had travelled to Mozambique and made a stop-over in South Africa. The patient is currently in isolation.
Meanwhile, France registered its biggest jump in coronavirus-related hospital admissions since the spring, health ministry data showed on Monday.
The number of patients in intensive care units with COVID-19 jumped by 117 to 1,749 people, the biggest increase since March-April, when the ICU number rose by more than 100 per day on several days.
The number of people in hospital with the virus jumped by 470 to 9,860, the biggest one-day increase since March 29. Compared with a week ago, the number of COVID-19 patients was up more than 18 percent, the biggest week-on-week increase this year.
The French health minister last week said that France has entered a fifth wave of the COVID-19 epidemic. France is registering nearly 30,000 new cases a day on average.
Germany
Germany’s seven-day COVID-19 incidence rate per 100,000 people fell slightly on Tuesday, the first decline in nearly a month, according to the latest data from the RKI public-health institute.
The rate slipped to 452.2, from 452.4 the previous day, while there were 45,753 new cases and a further 388 deaths from the disease.
Chancellor Angela Merkel and her incoming successor, Olaf Scholz, will hold talks with Germany’s 16 state premiers later on Tuesday, with authorities under pressure to impose tighter restrictions.
Greece
Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis announced mandatory COVID-19 vaccination for all Greeks above 60 years of age before a cabinet meeting in Athens on Tuesday, in an effort to tackle the new omicron variation threat ahead of the festive season.
Those who refuse to get vaccinated will have to pay a monthly fine of 100 euros ($114) for each month they don’t get jabbed, starting on Jan 16, according to Mitsotakis. The penalty will be imposed by the tax authorities directly to those who haven’t been inoculated and the funds collected will be given to Greek hospitals fighting the pandemic.
“It is not a punishment,” Mitsotakis said. “I would say it is a health fee.”
In Greece, only 60,000 among the 580,000 unvaccinated people over 60 years old received the vaccine in November. Greece’s vaccination ratio in this age group is around 83 percent compared to Portugal’s 98 percent, Mitsotakis said.
Those people must be the first to be protected, as they are often the ones who go to the hospital when it’s too late, further aggravating their situation and preventing the hospitalization of people with other serious diseases, the premier said.
“Experts estimate that the importance of the vaccine in a 70-year-old person is equivalent to 34 vaccinations of younger ones in terms of public health,” according to Mitsotakis.
Greece will also provide every adult with a free self-test during the Dec 6-12 period and the Jan 3-7 period, the Greek premier said.
Italy
Italy may start COVID-19 vaccinations on children in the 5-11 age group as soon as December 23, should the Italian Medicines Agency, Aifa, give the proposal the green light this week, Franco Locatelli, head of the National Health Institute, said in an interview on SkyTg24.
Italy’s medical authorities are considering setting up dedicated children units within the vaccination hubs, Locatelli said.
A medic places two vials of COVID-19 coronavirus vaccines (from left to right): Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna, on a table before administering doses at a Clalit Health Services Medical Centre in east Jerusalem on Aug 10, 2021. (HAZEM BADER / AFP)
Moderna
The head of drugmaker Moderna said COVID-19 vaccines are unlikely to be as effective against the Omicron variant of the coronavirus as they have been previously, sparking fresh worry in financial markets about the trajectory of the pandemic.
"There is no world, I think, where (the effectiveness) is the same level . . . we had with Delta," Moderna Chief Executive Stephane Bancel told the Financial Times in an interview.
"I think it's going to be a material drop. I just don't know how much because we need to wait for the data. But all the scientists I've talked to . . . are like 'this is not going to be good.'"
Bancel added that the high number of mutations on the protein spike the virus uses to infect human cells meant it was likely the current crop of vaccines would need to be modified.
He had earlier said on CNBC that it could take months to begin shipping a vaccine that does work against Omicron.
Norway
Norwegians should wear face masks on public transport and in other crowded places amid a surge in coronavirus infections, Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Stoere said on Tuesday.
He also urged municipalities to accelerate a drive to give booster shots to all adults, but did not call for a widespread use of digital "corona passes".
While 88 percent of adults in Norway have received at least two vaccine doses against COVID-19, and 71 percent of the overall population has been inoculated, hospitalizations and mortality are rising.
Meanwhile, Norway is extending isolation times for those testing positive to the coronavirus and where there’s reason to believe that the infection is the omicron variant, the Health and Care Services Ministry said in a statement on Monday.
Other household members will be required to quarantine for 10 days and close contacts to those infected must undergo testing under the new measures, which will apply regardless of vaccination status.
The requirements will be lifted as soon as it is confirmed the infection isn’t a result of the new variant, which is so far not yet confirmed in the country.
Pfizer/BioNTech
Pfizer Inc and German partner BioNTech SE are expected to ask the US Food and Drug Administration in the next few days to authorize their COVID-19 vaccine booster shot for 16 and 17-year olds, the Washington Post reported on Monday, citing two people familiar with the matter.
ALSO READ: COVID-19 vaccine makers start work on Omicron-tailored shots
Poland
Poland had 19,100 new COVID-19 cases in past 24 hours, the first weekly decline in virus figures since the 4th wave of the pandemic started, signaling that its peak may have already happened last week, Health Minister Adam Niedzielski said on TVN24 television.
However, Niedzielski reiterated that emergence of new virus variant omicron may be a game-changer.
Poland has already banned flights to and from seven African countries in line with recommendation from the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control.
Regeneron
Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc's COVID-19 antibody treatment and other similar drugs could be less effective against the new Omicron coronavirus variant, the company said on Tuesday.
The drugmaker said further analyses are ongoing to confirm and quantify this potential impact using the actual Omicron variant sequence.
Regeneron's shares were down 2.8 percent at $636 before the bell.
Global markets fell on Tuesday following comments from Moderna Inc's chief executive officer, who said COVID-19 vaccines are unlikely to be as effective against Omicron as they have been previously.
Regeneron said analysis shows the individual mutations present in Omicron indicate "there may be reduced neutralization activity of both vaccine-induced and monoclonal antibody conveyed immunity".
The analysis included Regeneron's COVID-19 antibody cocktail REGEN-COV, according to the company.
Rivals Eli Lilly and Co and Vir Biotechnology Inc, who have also developed COVID-19 antibody drugs, did not immediately respond to Reuters requests for comment.
The World Health Organization and scientists have said it could take weeks to understand whether Omicron is likely to cause severe illness or escape protection against immunity induced by vaccines.
Vaccine makers are already preparing for a situation where their current vaccines are less effective against the new variant, with several companies announcing on Monday that they had begun work on vaccines tailored for Omicron.
Rwanda
Rwanda became one of the few African nations offering coronavirus-vaccine booster doses on Tuesday, according to the nation’s Ministry of Health.
The shots will be administered to people 50 years old and above, as well as those as young as 30 years, but with non-communicable diseases, the ministry said in a statement. The exercise begins from the capital, Kigali.
Rwanda joins African nations, including Seychelles, Mauritius and South Africa, that are administering booster shots to various categories of people such as the elderly and health-care workers.
Nations across the world are quickly moving to give additional doses amid new COVID-19 variants, including the recent Omicron that was first detected in southern Africa. That’s even as most people in Africa remain unvaccinated, partly because of inadequate supplies, hesitancy and logistical challenges.
Rwanda has vaccinated about 9.3 million people, of which 3.4 million are fully inoculated as of Nov. 29, according to the health ministry. The East African nation of approximately 12 million people targets to vaccinate 60 percent of its population by June 2022.
A petrol attendant stands next to a newspaper headline in Pretoria, South Africa on Nov 27, 2021. (DENIS FARRELL / AP)
South Africa
South Africa's daily COVID-19 infection rate could triple to more than 10,000 by the end of this week as the new Omicron variant spreads rapidly, an infectious disease expert said on Monday.
Professor Salim Abdool Karim, the government's chief adviser during the initial response to the pandemic, also said that, while existing vaccines should be effective at preventing severe disease from the variant, South African hospitals could be under pressure from a flood of admissions within two to three weeks.
"Even if Omicron is not clinically worse, and certainly the anecdotes don't raise any red flags just yet… we are going to see this (pressure on hospitals) in all likelihood because of the rapidity of transmission," he told a news conference.
Abdool Karim, a professor at South Africa's University of KwaZulu-Natal and Columbia University in the United States, said vaccines were still likely to confer good protection against Omicron because of T-cell immunity, different from the antibody immunity that often blocks infections.
The government says it is doing everything possible to prepare health facilities to cope with the variant and is asking countries that imposed travel restrictions on southern Africa to reverse them, Health Minister Joe Phaahla told the same news conference.
So far, there has not been a steep increase in hospital admissions or COVID-19 deaths since the variant was first detected in South Africa last week, in samples from earlier in November.
A member of staff checks the European COVID-19 passport on a woman's phone at a restaurant, in Pamplona, northern Spain on Nov 29, 2021. (ALVARO BARRIENTOS / AP)
Spain
The first case of the Omicron variant of the coronavirus was confirmed in Spain on Monday by the service of microbiology at the Gregorio Maranon Hospital in Madrid.
The patient was a 51-year-old man who returned to Spain on Sunday after visiting South Africa, where the variant is first detected. He was suffering slight symptoms, according to the hospital.
The man was reported to have flown into Spain on a flight from Amsterdam, the Netherland.
Sweden
Sweden has identified its first case of the Omicron variant of COVID-19, the nation’s Public Health Authority said on its website. The person had recently visited southern Africa and lives in southern Sweden.
This March 6, 2020 file photo, shows the headquarters of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta. (RON HARRIS / AP)
United States
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said on Monday everyone aged 18 years and older should get a booster shot, as it looks to tackle a new and highly infectious strain of the coronavirus that is quickly spreading across the globe.
The update comes after President Joe Biden on Monday called for wider vaccination to curb the spread of the Omicron coronavirus variant, which was first detected in southern Africa.
The agency is taking a more cautious stance as Omicron's emergence further emphasizes the importance of vaccination and boosters, CDC Director Rochelle Walensky said in a statement on Monday.
The agency also said the 47 million adults who are not yet vaccinated are encouraged to get vaccinated as soon as possible.
Meanwhile, US President Joe Biden urged Americans on Monday not to panic about the new COVID-19 Omicron variant and said the country was making contingency plans with pharmaceutical companies if new vaccines are needed.
Biden said the country would not go back to lockdowns to stop the spread of Omicron, and he would lay out his strategy on Thursday for combating the pandemic over the winter. He urged people to get vaccinated, get boosters and wear masks.
"This variant is a cause for concern, not a cause for panic," Biden said in remarks at the White House following a meeting with his COVID-19 team.
Biden said he believed that existing vaccines would continue to protect against severe disease, but added that his administration was working with vaccine makers Pfizer, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson to develop contingency plans.
"In the event, hopefully unlikely, that updated vaccinations or boosters are needed to respond to this new variant, we will accelerate their development and deployment with every available tool," he said.
Biden said he would direct the US Food and Drug Administration and the CDC to make those vaccines available quickly.
"We're going to fight and beat this new variant," he said.
