Jehangir Hussain :
None, not even the World Health Organisation knows how deadly might be omicron, the new corona virus strain detected by South Africa. The omicron coronavirus variant has affected at least 24 countries including the United States and India.
The WHO states that the existing covid-19 vaccines would not be able to provide protection against the new variant from South Africa. There’s still much to be learned about the new strain, says the WHO. The United States reported its first case on Wednesday.
The authorities in Bangladesh have ordered quarantine for incoming passengers from countries with omicron cases. They requested Bangladeshis in African countries to defer visiting Bangladesh, if possible.
WHO official Maria Van Kerkhove told a news conference in Geneva that scientists were trying to know more about the new variant, how severe it might be and how quickly it could spread. It’s too early to say more about the new variant except ‘some indication that some of the patients are presenting’ she said.
‘We expect to have more information on transmission within days, not necessarily weeks, about its severity profile,’ she said.
Omicron, declared a ‘variant of concern’ by the WHO last week after being identified by South Africa, has quickly become a worldwide concern generating speculation that it could possibly evade vaccines and acquired immunity from infection with previous strains including the now-dominant delta variant. Van Kerkhove said she would like to make it ‘crystal clear’ that ‘there’s no indication to suggest that the vaccines won’t work even with reduced efficacy.’
‘It’s still better to have the vaccine because it will save your life,’ she said. She cautioned that what continues to drive infections is ‘increasing social mixing in the context of the inappropriate use of public health and social measures. Not lockdown, but things like masking, hand hygiene, distancing, improving ventilation, etc.’
Van Kerkhove praised South Africa for its transparency and its willingness ‘to not only share data, not only share information, but also share samples.’
But she said the travel bans on the country ‘have caused some challenges for those samples to actually be shipped out of the country.’ And South Africa’s National Institute of Communicable Diseases on Wednesday reported a doubling of coronavirus cases to 8,561 in the past 24 hours. However it said that the number of deaths and hospitalizations had not changed significantly.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has called for ‘tailored’ travel restrictions, including testing of travellers before and after they arrive in a country, and advised against blanket bans that ‘place a heavy burden on lives and livelihoods.’
Michael Ryan, the executive director of WHO’s Health Emergencies Programme, said there were ‘contradictions’ inherent in selective travel bans. ‘Does the virus read your passport?’ he asked. “Does the virus know your nationality or where you’re legally resident?’
In South Africa, covid-19 cases are spiking at the fastest rate since the start of the pandemic, with Omicron now the dominant variant in some provinces, according to reports. The US has joined a growing number of countries that have confirmed cases of the new variant. The US’ first case was detected in California in a person who travelled from South Africa.
The UN Secretary-General said travel bans imposed on southern African countries over Omicron fears are ‘unacceptable,’ and he compared the ban with restrictions on apartheid. There is still a lot we don’t know about omicron, he said.
Americans are divided — largely down the 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.
Only 52 per cent 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 per cent oppose it, reported CNN.
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 per cent 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.
And 79 per cent of the Republicans oppose the federal policy, while 86 per cent of Democrats support it. Opinions are similarly divided by vaccination status, with most vaccinated adults support it while most of the unvaccinated adults oppose it.
General perceptions about how well Biden is handling the pandemic overall are also split by political party and vaccination status.
(Jehangir Hussain is a senior journalist. Email: [email protected])
