Washingtom – United States health officials on Sunday said they were preparing for the likely appearance of the new Omicron coronavirus (COVID-19) variant in the country, with restrictions set to begin on Monday against travellers from eight southern African countries.
“Inevitably, it will be here,” although no cases have been detected yet, the nation’s top infectious disease official, Dr Anthony Fauci, told ABC News’ “This Week”.
Omicron, which was first detected in South Africa, has now been confirmed in Australia, Belgium, Botswana, Britain, Denmark, Germany, Hong Kong, Israel, Italy and the Netherlands.
President Joe Biden, headed back to Washington following the Thanksgiving holiday weekend, was scheduled to meet with his COVID-19 response team later on Sunday, the White House said.
US health officials will also speak with counterparts in South Africa on Sunday to get “more information in real time”, Fauci told NBC, adding the flight curbs would give them more time to gather information and weigh possible action.
It “is to get us better prepared, to rev up on the vaccination, to be really ready for something that may not actually be a big deal, but we want to make sure that we’re prepared for the worst,” he said on NBC’s “Meet the Press”.
Fauci told ABC it was too early to know whether new lockdowns or mandates are needed.
“It clearly is giving indication that it has the capability of transmitting rapidly. That’s the thing that’s causing us now to be concerned,” he added on NBC.
Potentially more contagious than previous variants, Omicron has sparked worries worldwide and rattled markets.
Its appearance in the United States, where 30 percent of the population has not gotten a single dose of vaccine, could threaten to undermine the nation’s recovery nearly two years after COVID-19’s emergence and further pressure local healthcare systems already taxed by the recent Delta variant.
Rising cases as colder weather forces more people indoors has also caused some hospital systems and US states, including New York, to declare emergencies.
So far, nearly 782 000 people have died in the United States from COVID since early 2020, the most of any country in the world, amid over 48 million infections, Reuters data show.
Travellers banned, not flights
The United States is joining other nations in seeking to block transmission by imposing travel restrictions.
Beginning at 12:01 a.m. on Monday, it will bar entry of nearly all foreign nationals who have been in any of eight southern African countries within the last 14 days and has warned Americans against travelling to those nations.
Flights by Delta Air Lines and United Airlines have continued from South Africa to the United States since the variant was discovered. The Centres for Disease Control did not immediately respond to a request for information about whether passengers from these flights were being screened.
Fauci and other top officials said the sudden burst of cases made Omicron worrisome and it remained unclear how current vaccines or therapeutics could be impacted. Vaccine makers Pfizer/BioNTech (PFE.N), (22UAy.DE) and Moderna (MRNA.O) have said they expect more information soon.
“We need more data there before we can say confidently that this is not a severe version of the virus, but we should find that out in the next couple weeks,” outgoing National Institutes of Health Director Dr. Francis Collins told “Fox News Sunday.”
‘Clarion call’ for shots
Fauci pressed Americans to continue get COVID-19 vaccines and boosters while experts evaluate Omicron.
“This is a clarion call . . . [to] get vaccinated,” he told NBC. (Reuters)
