Omicron variant was in Western Europe days before first identified in Southern Africa
New evidence has revealed that the omicron
variant of the coronavirus was already present in western Europe well before
the first cases were officially identified in southern Africa.
Authorities in the Netherlands said Tuesday
that it detected the variant in test samples as early as November 19 -- a full
week before the positive cases detected last Friday among passengers who
arrived in Amsterdam on a flight from South Africa.
Health officials in Japan and France also
confirmed their first cases of omicron on Tuesday, joining a growing list of
nations including Britain, Canada, Scotland, Australia, Austria, Spain and
Sweden.
The emergence and rapid spread of omicron has
prompted Stephane Bancel, the chief executive of pharmaceutical giant Moderna,
to warn Tuesday in an interview with The Financial Times that the world’s
existing COVID-19 vaccines may be less effective against the new variant
compared to delta and other earlier variants.
Bancel’s prediction of a “material drop” in
the effectiveness of the vaccines -- including the one developed by Moderna --
sent global financial markets plummeting Tuesday, with Tokyo’s Nikkei losing
1.5%, crude oil futures plunging more than 3% percent, and U.S stock futures
losing between one-half and one percent.
But scientists at the University of Oxford,
which developed a two-dose vaccine in collaboration with drugmaker AstraZeneca,
issued a statement Tuesday saying the current vaccines “have continued to
provide very high levels of protection against severe disease and there is no
evidence so far that omicron is any different.” The statement also said if
necessary, it has the “tools and processes in place for rapid development of an
updated COVID-19 vaccine.”
Emer Cooke, the head of the European
Medicines Agency, the drug regulator for the European Union, also attempted to
sound a note of reassurance Tuesday, telling EU lawmakers in Brussels that the
current vaccines are still able to deal with the omicron variant, but if need
be, it will take up to four months to have new versions approved for use in the
27-nation bloc.
Tuesday’s mixed messages come a day after
Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the director of the World Health Organization, told
a special session of the World Health Assembly in Geneva, “This pestilence –
one that we can prevent, detect and treat – continues to cast a long shadow
over the world.”
“Omicron’s very emergence is another reminder
that although many of us might think we are done with COVID-19, it is not done
with us,” Tedros said. “We are living through a cycle of panic and neglect.
Hard-won gains could vanish in an instant. Our most immediate task, therefore,
is to end this pandemic.”
The WHO said the overall global risk related
to the omicron variant “is assessed as very high" although no deaths have
been linked to it.
The threat of the variant prompted both the
United States and Britain to recommend Monday that all adults get COVID-19
booster shots.
In the United States, the Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention had previously approved booster shots for all adults but
only recommended them for those age 50 and older or those who were at high risk
for the disease.
Britain’s government expanded booster
eligibility to people between the ages of 18 and 39 after previously offering
it only to those over 40 or at high risk for the disease.
Omicron prompts
travel bans
Poland and Japan became the latest countries
Monday to announce travel bans because of the variant. Poland said it was
suspending flights to seven southern African countries while Japan said it
would suspend entry of all foreign visitors beginning Tuesday.
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa said
his country was “deeply disappointed” by the travel bans. “These restrictions
are completely unjustified and unfairly discriminate against our country and
our southern African sister countries,” the South African leader said in a
televised address Sunday.
Dr. Unben Pillay, a South African general
practitioner in the heavily hit Gauteng province, told the Associated Press
that the sharp increase in new COVID-19 cases attributed to the omicron variant
of the coronavirus is resulting in mostly mild symptoms. He said that most
people are being treated at home and that those who are vaccinated are faring
better than those who are not.
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