WHO Officially Names New COVID-19 Strain As 'Omicron', Classifies It As A 'Variant Of Concern'
As countries around the world scramble to take precautions against the newly emerged strain of COVID-19, the Technical Advisory Group on SARS-CoV-2 Virus Evolution (TAG-VE) of the World Health Organization (WHO) has officially named it as omicron and has categorised it as 'variant of concern'.
Dubbed as 'super strain' by healthcare experts, B.1.1.529 - has more than 30 mutations more than any other variants and twice as many as delta.
According to the WHO, the B.1.1.529 variant was first reported to WHO from South Africa on 24 November 2021. The epidemiological situation in South Africa has been characterized by three distinct peaks in reported cases, the latest of which was predominantly the Delta variant. In recent weeks, infections have increased steeply, coinciding with the detection of B.1.1.529 variant. The first known confirmed B.1.1.529 infection was from a specimen collected on 9 November 2021.
The WHO has asked countries around the world to:
- enhance surveillance and sequencing efforts to better understand circulating SARS-CoV-2 variants.
- submit complete genome sequences and associated metadata to a publicly available database, such as GISAID.
- report initial cases/clusters associated with VOC infection to WHO through the IHR mechanism.
- where capacity exists and in coordination with the international community, perform field investigations and laboratory assessments to improve understanding of the potential impacts of the VOC on COVID-19 epidemiology, severity, effectiveness of public health and social measures, diagnostic methods, immune responses, antibody neutralization, or other relevant characteristics.
So far the infections linked to the new strain have been reported from Botswana, South Africa, Hong Kong, Belgium, and Israel.?
Flights from Africa banned
In all the cases identified outside the African continent, the patients had a recent travel history to Africa.
Though the extent of the new variant's spread is still unclear, countries across the world are banning flights from Africa.
The United States, Canada, Russia, Brazil, Saudi Arabia, Australia and a host of other countries joined the European Union in restricting travel for visitors from that region.
US President Biden said that starting Monday, his administration will restrict air travel from South Africa, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Namibia, Lesotho, Eswatini, Mozambique and Malawi as a "precautionary" measure to prevent the newly discovered Omicron variant of the coronavirus from spreading into the United States.
The UK announced it would be temporarily suspending flights from South Africa, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Lesotho and Eswatini.
Japan has tightened border controls for travellers from the same six countries, bringing in a 10-day quarantine beginning at 12 am on November 27. Egypt, Singapore, Malaysia, Dubai, Saudi Arabia and Jordan have also announced restrictions on the seven countries.
What is India doing?
In India, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will chair a meet on the situation relating to COVID-19 and vaccination with top government officials to assess the situation.
Ministry of Health and Family Welfare adds Hong Kong and Israel to the list of countries from where travellers would need to follow additional measures on arrival in India, including post-arrival testing considering the detection of the new variant.
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