December 2 Omicron coronavirus variant news

An antibody treatment which has been found to reduce the risk of hospitalization and death from Covid-19 by up to 79% in high-risk adults has been approved for use in the United Kingdom. 

Xevudy, also known as sotrovimab, was approved for use in patients aged 12 and above by the UK’s Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) on Thursday, the MHRA said in a statement. 

Sotrovimab was developed by London-based GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) and Vir Biotechnology, based in California. It “retains activity against all tested variants of concern, including key mutations of Omicron,” according to a statement released Thursday by maker GSK.

It is the second monoclonal antibody therapeutic to be approved by the UK drugs watchdog, after Ronapreve, made by Regeneron.

A single dose was found to reduce the risk of hospitalisation and death by 79% in high-risk adults with symptomatic Covid-19 infection, according to the statement. 

Like Merck’s antiviral pill molnupiravir, Xevudy “has been authorised for use in people who have mild to moderate Covid-19 infection and at least one risk factor for developing severe illness,” the statement said. It added that such risk factors included obesity, older age (over 60 years), diabetes mellitus, or heart disease.

Sotrovimab is administered by intravenous infusion over 30 minutes.

CORRECTION: An earlier version of this post incorrectly stated that the MHRA and GSK statements were released on Tuesday. They were both released on Thursday.

South Africa is seeing an increase in coronavirus reinfections in patients who contract the Omicron variant, Anne von Gottberg, a microbiologist from the country’s National Institute for Communicable Diseases, said during a Thursday news briefing. 

The data from South Africa, however, are showing that reinfections may be less severe, Gottberg added. “We believe, I think very much so, that the reinfections in our data, and hopefully from South Africa, that disease will be less severe,” Gottberg said. 

“And that’s what we’re trying to prove and to monitor very carefully in South Africa. And the same would hold for those that are vaccinated,” she added. 

South Africa is beginning its fourth coronavirus wave, Gottberg said with cases in the country rising at a “rapid rate,” particularly in the Gauteng province, the country’s most populous. 

Over 8,000 new daily cases were detected in the country on Wednesday, Gottberg said, with scientists expecting cases to rise to 10,000 a day. “We believe that the numbers of cases will increase exponentially in all provinces throughout the country,” she said.

Only a limited number of confirmed coronavirus cases in the country are being sequenced, Gottberg explained. Of 249 cases sequenced in November, 183 were confirmed to be the Omicron variant, equating to 70-75% according to Gottberg. 

“It does look like there was a predominance of Omicron throughout the country. And Omicron has been identified through sequencing in at least five of our provinces (that are) sequencing data,” she told reporters.

The World Health Organization also announced that it will deploy a surge team to the Gauteng province to help with surveillance, sequencing, and contact tracing. 

Women who are pregnant or trying to become pregnant are less likely than others their age to be vaccinated against Covid-19, and more than half say they are not confident in the safety of the vaccine, according to the latest Kaiser Family Foundation Covid-19 Vaccine Monitor survey published Thursday.

Overall, nearly three-quarters (73%) of adults say that they are “very confident” or “somewhat confident” that Covid-19 vaccines are safe for all adults. Only 15% of adults say that they are “not at all confident” in vaccine safety for adults. 

The survey was conducted for two weeks among a nationally representative sample of 1,820 adults in mid-November.

Arriving passengers leave a terminal at the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport in Mumbai on December 1, 2021.

India has reported its first two cases of the Omicron coronavirus variant, the joint secretary of its health ministry Lav Agarwal said in a news briefing Thursday.

The cases were detected in the southern Indian state of Karnataka in two men. One of these was a 66-year-old South African national who had traveled to India and the other was a 46-year-old local doctor, Karnataka’s Health Minister K Sudhakar told reporters Thursday evening.

Earlier, an administrative official in Karnataka’s capital Bengaluru city, Gaurav Gupta, told reporters that the doctor who tested positive had no travel history.

“All primary and secondary contacts have been traced and will be tested as per protocol,” Agarwal said. 

Karnataka’s health minister said five of the doctor’s primary and secondary contacts also tested positive for Covid and have been isolated at a government hospital.

The South African national has returned home to South Africa and his contacts, more than 200, have been found negative of Covid-19. Both the 66-year-old and 46-year-old had received two doses of Covid-19 vaccines, according to Sudhakar.

On Sunday, India revised its travel guidelines following the emergence of the Omicron variant. From December, all international passengers must submit a self-declaration form including their 14-day travel history and a negative Covid-19 PCR test taken within 72 hours prior to their departure. 

Travelers from countries deemed “at-risk” face further testing and surveillance, including a PCR test on arrival and must wait for the results before leaving or catching a connecting flight. They also have to quarantine at home for 7 days and have to take another test on the 8th day.

Correction: An earlier version of this post incorrectly stated the travel history of the cases. Only one of the cases, a South African national, had a travel history. 

The Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine is administered at a pop-up clinic offering vaccines and booster shots in Rosemead, California on November 29, 2021.

About 60% of fully vaccinated adults have already gotten their booster dose of Covid-19 vaccine or say they “definitely” will, according to the latest Kaiser Family Foundation Covid-19 Vaccine Monitor survey published Thursday. 

Another 19% say that they “probably” will get a booster as recommended by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, but nearly one in five (18%) say they “probably” or “definitely” won’t get a booster shot. 

At least half of adults across political parties and racial and ethnic groups already have or say they definitely will get a booster dose, but intent among older Republicans and younger Black people is notably lower than average. 

Among Democrats older than 50, about 87% already have or definitely plan to get their booster shots. But among older Republicans, only 58% said the same.

About two in five young Black and Hispanic adults and said that they already have or definitely will get a booster dose, compared to nearly three in five young White adults who said the same. 

Premier David Makhura visits the Lawley Fire Station pop-up vaccination site on August 17, 2021 in Lenasia, South Africa.

The leader of South Africa’s most populous province has appealed for unvaccinated people to come forward for their shots immediately, amid what he called a situation of “great concern,” especially among younger people. 

David Makhura said that Gauteng province – which includes the major city of Johannesburg – was on the cusp of a fourth wave of the coronavirus pandemic. 

Gauteng has seen a sudden spike in cases over the last month. Makhura said that until recently it was thought the increase was down to an existing virus variant but now it was clear that the new variant – Omicron – was likely responsible for many of the infections and was spreading rapidly.

In Gauteng, the Omicron variant now comprised 74% of sequences, said South Africa’s Network for Genomic Surveillance on Wednesday.

Makhura said the good news is that daily vaccination rates had risen this week to an average of more than 50,000 in Gauteng. But there were still 8 million people in the province – the most densely populated in South Africa – unvaccinated. He stressed the risk of thousands of people leaving the province during the Christmas holidays and carrying the variant with them. 

He also said people needed to get their second doses, and that there was no shortage of vaccines. And he indicated that if vaccination take-up did not improve, there would have to be consideration of mandatory vaccination program

Makhura also suggested that the evidence so far was that for the vaccinated at least the symptoms of the variant were mild and hospital admissions were not very high.

Other officials at the news conference said they expected the peak of the current wave of infections in Gauteng to come within two to three weeks – at a daily rate of 45,000 cases. But they cautioned this depended on a number of factors. 

Greece has reported its first case of the Omicron coronavirus variant on the island of Crete, Greek Health Minister Thanos Plevris announced Thursday morning.

The patient in question traveled to the country from South Africa on November 26, according to Theoklis Zaoutis, the head of Greece’s public health organization. On arrival the man took a rapid test which came back negative. Following daily testing, he tested positive on November 29, and the Omicron variant was detected today.

His symptoms remain mild and he has been placed under quarantine, along with his contacts.

Zaoutis added that although there are still gaps in our knowledge and more information is needed about the new variant, “vaccines remain the main weapon,” while urging everyone to get their shots.

Greece recently announced mandatory vaccinations for citizens over the age of 60. Citizens who have not booked their first dose by January 16 will face a monthly €100 ($113) fine.

President Joe Biden speaks on US supply chains in Washington, DC on Wednesday, December 1.

Americans are divided – largely down party lines and vaccination status – in their opinions on workplace vaccine requirements and how well President Joe Biden is handling the pandemic overall, according to the latest Kaiser Family Foundation Covid-19 Vaccine Monitor survey published Thursday.

Only slightly more than half (52%) of adults support the Biden administration’s policy that would mandate workers in companies with at least 100 workers to be vaccinated against Covid-19 or face weekly tests, while 45% oppose it.

The federal policy is on hold as it is debated in a federal appeals court, but more than a third of workers at large companies said they already have a vaccination requirement and another 17% want their employers to impose one.

Vaccine requirements are much less common at smaller companies; only about 11% of people working at smaller companies said a vaccine requirement was already in place and another 20% would want their employer to impose one.

General perceptions about how well Biden is handling the pandemic overall are also split by political party and vaccination status.

Nearly nine in 10 Republicans say they disapprove, while more than eight in 10 Democrats say they approve. Similarly, nearly eight in 10 unvaccinated adults disapprove, while more than half of vaccinated adults approve, according to the survey.

Overall, nearly half of adults surveyed said the government has not done enough to help small businesses or low-income people during the pandemic. About 40% of those surveyed said the government has not done enough to help Black people, Hispanic people or rural residents.

The latest KFF Covid-19 Vaccine Monitor survey was conducted over two weeks in mid-November. All fully vaccinated adults became eligible to receive a booster dose at the end of the survey period, but the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued guidance encouraging all vaccinated adults to get boosters, and information about the new Omicron variant become public, after the survey ended.

Results came from a survey of a nationally representative sample of 1,820 adults.

A healthcare worker conducts a PCR Covid-19 test at the Lancet laboratory in Johannesburg on November 30, 2021.

In the early days of November, laboratory technicians at Lancet Laboratories in Pretoria, South Africa, found unusual features in samples they were testing for the coronavirus.

Essentially, a gene was missing in what would be a normal genome profile of the virus. PCR tests weren’t detecting one of their expected targets, a signal that something about the virus had changed.

Just a few days later, the same phenomenon was reported at Lancet’s Molecular Pathology Department in Johannesburg.

Dr. Allison Glass, a pathologist with Lancet, said the discovery coincided with an increase in positive cases of Covid-19 in parts of South Africa.

In the province of Gauteng, which includes Johannesburg, fewer than 1% of people were testing positive at the start of November, but this rose to 6% within a fortnight and to 16% by Wednesday.

Three weeks later, what the South African scientists had stumbled across would be known worldwide as the Omicron variant of the coronavirus.

The spike in Gauteng didn’t go unnoticed at the Network for Genomics Surveillance in South Africa (NGS-SA). Its director, Tulio de Oliveira, called a meeting for November 23. He told the New Yorker: “We heard from one member in our network that a private lab, Lancet Laboratories, had sent in six genomes of a very mutated virus. And, when we looked at the genomes, we got quite worried because they discovered a failure of one of the probes in the P.C.R. testing.”

CERI rapidly upscaled testing of samples in Gauteng and found the variant appearing very frequently. Tulio later observed on Twitter that in less than two weeks the new variant “dominates all infections following a devastating Delta wave in South Africa.”

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People queue for a PCR Covid-19 test at the Lancet laboratory in Johannesburg on November 30, 2021. - A new, heavily mutated Covid-19 variant, dubbed omicron, spread across the globe on Sunday, shutting borders and renewing curbs as the EU chief said governments faced a "race against time" to understand the strain. (Photo by EMMANUEL CROSET / AFP) (Photo by EMMANUEL CROSET/AFP via Getty Images)

Related article How South African scientists discovered Omicron and set off a global chain reaction

As part of its ongoing efforts to combat the Covid-19 pandemic, the White House is announcing a slew of new actions Thursday aimed at fighting the pandemic and protecting Americans from the Delta and newly-discovered Omicron coronavirus variants. 

President Joe Biden will detail the administration’s nine-pronged plan in remarks at the National Institutes of Health Thursday, just one day after officials confirmed the first recorded case of the Omicron variant in the United States in California.

“We have the tools we need to confront this variant, to keep making progress in our fight against the virus, and we are using these tools to keep people safe, keep our schools open, and protect our economy,” the official added.

The plans addresses several areas:

Travel guidance for international and domestic travel 

Building on new travel restrictions from regions affected by spread of the Omicron variant earlier this week, Biden will announce new steps Thursday tightening pre-departure Covid-testing protocol for all inbound international travelers, requiring a negative test within one day of departure for the US.

The administration will also formally announce its plan to extend a mask requirement for domestic travel, originally slated to expire in January, until mid-March. The order, which was already extended earlier this summer, also applies to travel via rail and public transportation, and comes amid widespread reports of unruly passengers refusing to comply with mask mandates.

Increasing vaccine and booster outreach for seniors and children 

Under the plan announced Wednesday, the administration is increasing vaccine outreach, including efforts, in partnership with HHS, AARP, and Medicare, to ensure an estimated 100 million Americans eligible for the Covid-19 vaccine booster get shots as soon as possible, including the launching of a nationwide public education campaigns, town halls, offering rides to vaccine and booster appointments for the nation’s “hardest-hit and highest risk older Americans.” 

As part of those efforts, the administration will launch “family vaccination clinics” aimed at offering vaccines and boosters for entire families at once and FEMA offering mobile vaccination clinics to reach hard-to-reach communities. The administration is also issuing a “Safe School Checklist” so schools can safely encourage vaccination and booster efforts and avoid outbreaks.

Biden will also announce further actions to export vaccines abroad, including 200 million more doses in the next 100 days, accelerating delivery to high-risk countries, while ramping up vaccine manufacturing to increase global production capacity. 

Expanding testing and outbreak response efforts 

Biden’s Thursday announcement will also new steps to increase Covid-testing, including the news that private insurers will reimburse the costs of at-home tests for more than 150 million Americans covered by private insurance. In addition, local community sites such as health centers and rural clinics will offer free at-home tests for those not covered by private insurance.

The president will also announce over 60 Winter Covid emergency response team deployments available to states to combat outbreaks and rising Covid cases nationally, expanding a program from the summer and fall.

A hospital worker ensures people practice social distancing as they wait in line to get vaccinated against COVID-19 at the Lenasia South Hospital, near Johannesburg, South Africa, Dec. 1, 2021

South Africa’s Covid-19 cases are “increasingly rapidly” at what looks to be “the fastest rate we have seen since the start of the pandemic,” Michelle Groome, head of the country’s National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD), told CNN Wednesday.

Weeks after Omicron was first detected, it is now the dominant variant in some provinces, according to health authorities. In Gauteng province – which includes the major city of Johannesburg – the Omicron variant comprised 74% of sequences, said South Africa’s Network for Genomic Surveillance on Wednesday.

The province has seen the sharpest rise in coronavirus infections in the last month, and testing is ongoing to determine the prevalence of Omicron in other districts.

Infections in South Africa appear to be surging, with around 8,600 daily cases on Tuesday, up from roughly 1,300 cases a week earlier, according to latest data from the National Institute for Communicable Diseases.

Groome said the rapid increase of cases was “concerning,” adding that testing of wastewater had alerted authorities relatively early to infections in the Pretoria district.

For now, it was unclear whether the rise in infections was “due to increased transmissibility of the Omicron variant or due to immune escape,” said Groome.

She added that cases had mostly been among younger people, which could be down to their increased social gatherings as schools broke up, as well as lower vaccination rates in that age group.

So far, doctors had observed “mostly mild cases,” Groome said, putting it down to a mostly younger demographic presenting.

As cases move into the older population, doctors will have a better idea of “whether we are seeing reciprocal increases in hospitalizations and deaths associated with it, or whether this really is more a mild disease,” Groome said.

The first case of the Omicron variant detected in mainland France has been identified in the northern Ile-de-France region, French health authorities said Thursday.

A statement from the Ile-de-France regional health authority said the case, a man between ages 50 and 60, tested positive on Nov. 25 following his return from a trip to Nigeria.

The man, who was unvaccinated, was asymptomatic at the time of the test and was placed into isolation with the group he was traveling with, authorities said.

His wife — who is also unvaccinated and traveled with him — also tested positive for Covid-19, but the sequencing of her variant is still ongoing, the statement said.

The first case of the Omicron variant recorded on French territory was detected on the island of Reunion, officials said Tuesday.

The Omicron coronavirus variant has prompted a fresh wave of travel restrictions and border closures as countries scramble to identify cases of the potentially more transmissible strain.

Here’s the latest major developments:

Omicron is the coronavirus “variant we were fearing,” a French health expert said Thursday.

Speaking to CNN affiliate BFMTV, Jean-François Delfraissy, head of France’s Scientific Council, said the new variant’s 30 new mutations in the spike protein — the part of the virus targeted by vaccines — were a cause for concern.

Omicron “arrived from nowhere,” Delfraissy said, adding that the new strain was not an evolution of the Delta variant, which was responsible for the fifth Covid-19 wave in Europe. 

Delfraissy said that while Omicron was spreading quickly, “Christmas is not in danger,” and “the response to Delta and Omicron is the same: booster shots.”

Anderson Cooper and Dr. Sanjay Gupta.

Anderson Cooper and Dr. Sanjay Gupta hosted a CNN town hall on the coronavirus Wednesday night, with guests including Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

Much of the discussion focused on Omicron, including what we do and don’t know about the new variant. Here are five main takeaways:

Acting Federal Chancellor Angela Merkel and acting German Minister of Finance Olaf Scholz during a press conference after a meeting on the current coronavirus situation on November 18, 2021 in Berlin.

German citizens could potentially face tougher coronavirus restrictions as the country struggles to contain a fierce fourth wave of the pandemic.

Outgoing Chancellor Angela Merkel and her likely successor, Olaf Scholz, are holding crisis talks with regional leaders on Thursday to map out a way forward, a Tuesday statement from the Chancellor’s office said.

Tougher restrictions are likely to be agreed — many of which are set to target unvaccinated people. The goal is to bring down infection rates and ease the pressure on rapidly filling intensive care beds.

Among the range of measures being considered are the closures of bars and clubs, and limiting large events. Some hard-hit regions in Germany have already canceled Christmas markets and barred unvaccinated people from public spaces like restaurants, gyms and leisure facilities.

Germany’s leaders are also set to discuss mandatory vaccinations. Earlier this week, Scholz signaled his backing for mandatory Covid-19 shots. The introduction of mandatory vaccines would have to be approved by Parliament.

Intensive care warning: On Wednesday, Germany recorded 446 Covid-19 related fatalities — its highest number of daily deaths in nine months. Many hospitals are struggling to cope with the increasing number of intensive care patients and German medics have warned that occupancy of intensive care beds could soon exceed that seen during last winter’s peak.

The German Interdisciplinary Association for Intensive Care and Emergency (Divi) in a statement on Wednesday warned there could be about 6,000 Covid-19 patients in intensive care by Christmas —regardless of any measures implemented by Germany’s leaders. 

Germany reported 73,209 new cases within the past 24 hours, according to the Robert Koch Institute (RKI), the country’s disease control center.

More than 102,000 people have died as a result of coronavirus in Germany, the RKI said. The country reported 388 new deaths related to Covid-19 from Wednesday to Thursday.

Just under 70% of Germany’s population is fully vaccinated, according to the RKI.

Republican opposition to public health measures like vaccine and mask mandates has become one of the most difficult challenges facing President Joe Biden as he tries to fulfill his campaign promise to shut down the Covid-19 pandemic.

GOP leaders for months have blamed Biden for failing to stamp out the virus while becoming the party hellbent on protecting the rights of the unvaccinated, even if that means putting the health and safety of all other Americans at risk.

The Gordian knot they have created for Biden was on full display once again Wednesday when several Republican senators threatened to derail a stopgap measure that will avert a government shutdown Friday night unless their colleagues acceded to their demand for a vote on defunding Biden’s vaccine requirement for large employers.

With unvaccinated Americans now about three times as likely to lean Republican as Democratic, Biden has found few influential GOP allies to help him push his case for vaccinations in deep red areas where Americans remain most resistant to getting them.

But Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin, an Illinois Democrat, warned that forcing a shutdown over a health measure intended to save lives would prove disastrous for the Republican Party: “I certainly hope they don’t shut out the lights of this government (in) some kind of bold display of stupidity,” he said.

Read the full analysis:

US President Joe Biden gives an update on the Covid-19 response and vaccination program, in the South Court Auditorium of the White House in Washington, DC, on October 14, 2021.

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The Chinese city of Manzhouli in Inner Mongolia recorded 53 new locally transmitted Covid-19 cases on Wednesday, according to local health officials. 

Over the past five days, Manzhouli has been mass testing its 300,000 residents as it tries to stop a local Covid outbreak.

The city, which borders Russia, has so far confirmed 151 locally transmitted infections while the neighboring district of Zhalainuo’er has identified a further 32 cases, according to a CNN tally. 

Residents in 55 of the city’s neighborhoods have been banned from leaving their homes, while those in the rest of Manzhouli cannot leave their communities, the Center for Epidemic Prevention and Control said.

A fifth round of mass testing started on Thursday, according to the municipal government.

The recent outbreak began Nov. 27 when three asymptomatic cases were identified in Manzhouli.

China is the only country still following a zero-Covid model and, as such, moves quickly to eradicate any local outbreaks.

Japan has canceled a ban on accepting new reservations for inbound international flights, according to the Civil Aviation Bureau of the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism. 

On Wednesday, the Transport Ministry had asked airlines to refuse reservations on international flights to Japan over concerns of the Omicron coronavirus variant. It would have applied to all travelers — including Japanese citizens — from December 1 through December 31.

But Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida later said he had instructed the ministry to reconsider the decision out of consideration for Japanese citizens’ need to return.

Kishida added the initial announcement had caused confusion while talking to reporters from his office on Thursday. 

Airlines can now take new reservations as long as the number of passengers entering Japan remains below 3,500 a day — a limit on arrivals that was lowered from 5,000 last month, a transport ministry official said, according to Reuters.

South Korea identified 5,266 new Covid-19 cases on Wednesday, a record high for a second consecutive day, the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) said in a news release Thursday.

That breaks the previous record of 5,123 new cases, recorded on Tuesday. 

Last month, South Korea announced it would start “living with Covid-19” and began easing restrictions. But its reopening has coincided with record new infections, critical cases and deaths. Concerns over the new Omicron variant are also threatening the country’s recovery.

South Korea’s total confirmed cases increased to 457,612, while the death toll rose by 47 to 3,705, according to KDCA. Some 733 patients are in critical condition, KDCA said.

That’s despite high vaccination rates. As of Wednesday, 80.1% of the population has been fully vaccinated, according to KDCA.

Travel restrictions: The rise in cases has prompted authorities to mandate a 10-day quarantine for all incoming international travelers, including Korean nationals, starting Friday for two weeks.

The move came as five Omicron cases were reported by the country in travelers arriving from Nigeria. 

The mandate applies to travelers from all countries, regardless of their vaccination status, KDCA said.

The Biden administration will extend existing requirements for travelers to wear masks on airplanes, buses, trains and boats, as well as in airports and other transportation hubs, through March to address concerns over the Omicron coronavirus variant.

In August, the Transportation Security Administration extended its US federal transportation mask mandate through January 18 due to concerns at that time over the Delta variant.

Reuters was the first to report on the mandate extension.

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MIAMI, FLORIDA - FEBRUARY 01: A sign reading, 'masks required in this area,' is seen as travelers prepare to check-in for their Delta Airlines flight at the Miami International Airport on February 01, 2021 in Miami, Florida. An executive order signed by U.S. President Joe Biden last week mandates mask-wearing on federal property and on public transportation as part of his plan to combat the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. (Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

Related article Biden to extend transportation mask mandate through March

UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres speaks at an event in Bogota, Colombia, on November 24, 2021.

UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres on Wednesday described widespread travel bans imposed on southern African countries over fears of the Omicron variant as “unacceptable,” likening the restrictions to apartheid.

“When we have now this virus everywhere, what is unacceptable is to have one part of the world that is one of the most vulnerable parts of the world economy condemned to a lockout, when they were the ones that revealed the existence of a new variant that, by the way, already existed in other parts of the world, including in Europe, as we know,” Guterres said during a news briefing in New York alongside African Union Commission chair Moussa Faki Mahamat. 

South African scientists discovered the Omicron variant last week. It has since been identified in a growing number of countries including the United States, with scientists in the Netherlands confirming it was present in their country even before the South African announcement.

At the same Wednesday briefing, Faki Mahamat decried “stigmatization” of a vast swathe of the continent over the new variant. 

US health officials have argued that travel bans help to “buy time.”

Vaccine solidarity: Guterres also called for a global plan to help African countries produce Covid-19 vaccines. 

With only 6% percent of Africa’s population fully vaccinated, the people of the continent cannot be blamed for the “immorally low” level of vaccinations available to them, he said.

Dr. Anthony Fauci said Wednesday that “no one feels” a travel ban will prevent the Omicron variant from arriving in the United States, but it was “needed to buy some time” for the country to prepare and understand the situation.

Fauci announced the first US case of the Omicron variant had been detected in the US, in a traveler who had arrived from South Africa on Nov. 22 and tested positive Nov. 29. The traveler, who landed in California, had mild symptoms and was self-isolating.

The individual arrived before the US instituted measures aimed at slowing the entry of the new variant by limiting travel from several African nations. 

“But we needed to buy some time to be able to prepare, understand what’s going on,” added Fauci, chief medical adviser to President Joe Biden and director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

“What is the nature of this infection? What is the nature of the transmissibility? And we wanted to make sure that we didn’t all of a sudden say, ‘It’s like anything else, don’t worry about it,’ and then all of a sudden, something unfolds in front of you that you’re really not prepared for,” he added. “So we look at this is a temporary measure.”

The World Health Organization advised people in certain groups at a higher risk of contracting Covid-19 — including the unvaccinated and those over 60 — to postpone travel to areas with community spread, in response to the newly identified Omicron variant.

The organization also recommended that countries use a “multi-layered risk mitigation approach” to reducing spread, which it says can include passenger screening, Covid-19 testing and quarantines. 

“Blanket travel bans will not prevent international spread, and they place a heavy burden on lives and livelihoods,” WHO said, adding that travel bans can “disincentivize” countries to report cases of the variant when they appear. 

The United States’ first confirmed case of the Omicron coronavirus variant was been identified in California.

In a White House news briefing Wednesday, Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said the case was in an individual who traveled from South Africa on Nov. 22 and tested positive for Covid-19 on Nov. 29.

That individual, Fauci said, is self-quarantining and close contacts have tested negative for the coronavirus so far.

The California and San Francisco public health departments confirmed the case was caused by the Omicron variant through genomic sequencing conducted at the University of California at San Francisco, and the sequence was confirmed by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Color Health said in a statement it returned the positive test result through an San Francisco Covid-19 testing program, and Omicron was identified in under 30 hours “from the time of collection to strain confirmation.”

Omicron unknowns: The World Health Organization designates Omicron a “variant of concern.” In a technical brief released this week, WHO noted the variant poses a “very high” global risk. The variant was first identified by scientists in South Africa, and has since been detected in several countries.

Scientists are working to determine how transmissible the variant is, how sick it makes people and how well current vaccines work against it. Until more information is learned about the variant, the US restricted travel from South Africa and seven other countries.

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LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA - JULY 14: A registered nurse stirs a nasal swab in testing solution after administering a COVID-19 test at Sameday Testing on July 14, 2021 in Los Angeles, California. COVID-19 cases are on the rise in most states as the highly transmissible Delta variant has become the dominant strain in the United States. (Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images)

Related article First confirmed US case of Omicron coronavirus variant detected in California