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by Sofia CHRISTENSEN Agence France Presse JOHANNESBURG, South Africa (AFP) — The newly-discovered Omicron variant is likely to fuel a surge in South Africa’s coronavirus cases that could see daily infections treble this week, a top epidemiologist warned Monday. Health monitors reported over 2,800 new infections on Sunday, up from a daily average of 500 in the previous week and 275 the week before. “We can expect that higher transmissibility is likely and so […]
“Bayanihan Bakunahan” target revised to 9 million for 3-day campaign; 2nd round set on Dec. 15 to 17 (Eagle News) – Malacanang advised Filipinos nationwide to take advantage of the three-day “Bayanihan, Bakunahan” national vaccination drive which started on Monday, November 29, amid the threat of the highly infectious Omicron Covid-19 variant. Acting Presidential Spokesperson Karlo Alexei Nograles said that getting fully vaccinated is important to protect against the severe form of Covid-19. At […]
LONDON, United Kingdom (AFP) — G7 health ministers were to hold an emergency meeting Monday on the new Omicron Covid-19 strain spreading the globe and forcing border closures, as experts race to understand what the variant means for the fight to end the pandemic. The meeting was called by G7 chair Britain, which is among a steadily growing number of countries detecting cases of the heavily mutated new strain. Omicron, first discovered in southern Africa, […]
ROME, Italy (AFP) — The new Covid variant Omicron has many more mutations than the Delta variant, according to a first “image” of this new variant initially detected in South Africa, produced and published by the prestigious Bambino Gesu hospital in Rome. On the three-dimensional “image”, which looks like a map, “we can clearly see that the Omicron variant presents many more mutations than the Delta variant, concentrated above all in one area […]
JOHANNESBURG, South Africa (AFP) — South African scientists have discovered a new Covid-19 variant, Omicron, with multiple mutations that is thought to be highly contagious. The World Health Organization has designated it a variant of concern and many countries are racing to try and contain it, banning flights from southern Africa. Scientists are working round-the-clock to dissect the variant and try understand its behaviour. Here is a brief explainer of what is known so […]
by Joris FIORITI with Danny KEMP in The Hague and AFP bureaus Agence France Presse SCHIPHOL, Netherlands (AFP) — Several European nations on Saturday announced their first cases of a highly infectious new coronavirus strain, as governments worldwide began pulling down the shutters to contain the new Omicron variant. Britain, Germany and Italy confirmed their first cases of the new Covid-19 strain, while Dutch authorities quarantined 61 passengers from South Africa who tested positive […]
Australia banned flights from nine southern African countries on Saturday, tightening its borders to prevent the entry of the new Covid-19 Omicron variant. Non-Australians who visited South Africa, Zimbabwe and several other nations in the past fortnight will also be barred from Australia, Heath Minister Greg Hunt said. Citizens and residents travelling from the listed countries will have to quarantine for 14 days. “These are strong, swift, decisive and immediate actions,” Hunt told media in […]
by Daniel Woolls with AFP bureaus The United States, Brazil, Canada, and Saudi Arabia became the latest countries Friday to restrict travel from southern Africa, where a new Covid strain labelled a “variant of concern” has been discovered in a potentially heavy blow to the world’s efforts to end the coronavirus pandemic. The World Health Organization said the new variant is more infectious than the dominant, highly transmissible Delta strain, and renamed this B.1.1.529 strain […]
by Paul RICARD Agence France Presse It is, scientists say, the most worrying Covid-19 variant since delta and perhaps ever. Here is what we know — and what we don’t — about the strain thought to have originated in Southern Africa. – How worrying? “This one is worrying and I’ve not said that since delta,” British virologist Ravi Gupta said on Twitter, about the variant labelled B.1.1.529. Concerns among disease experts stem from the variant’s […]
by Agnès PEDRERO Next week’s World Trade Organization ministerial conference, the global trade body’s biggest gathering in four years, was postponed at the last minute Friday due to the new Omicron Covid-19 variant. The WTO hoped the four-day gathering in Geneva would breathe new life into the crippled organisation, which has been stuck for years trying to make progress on resolving issues like fishery subsidies. New director-general Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala was also hoping, against the odds, […]
The new Covid variant, dubbed Omicron and originally detected in South Africa, poses a “high to very high” risk to Europe, the EU health agency warned on Friday. The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) noted in a threat assessment report that there was still “considerable uncertainty related to the transmissibility, vaccine effectiveness, risk for reinfections and other properties of the Omicron variant.” However, the overall risk that Omicron posed to the European […]
The World Health Organization on Friday declared the recently-discovered B.1.1.529 strain of Covid-19, first detected in southern Africa, to be a variant of concern and renamed it Omicron. The classification puts Omicron into the most-troubling category of Covid-19 variants, along with the globally-dominant Delta, plus its weaker rivals Alpha, Beta and Gamma. Nations rushed to ban flights to slow the spread of Omicron on Friday, while stock markets and oil prices plunged on fears […]
