The United States’ top infectious disease expert, Dr. Anthony Fauci, said on Sunday that Americans should be prepared to do “anything and everything” to fight the spread of the new COVID-19 variant Omicron.
It is “too early to say” whether we need new lockdowns or mandates, Fauci told ABC News.
“You want to be prepared to do anything and everything,” he said.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said that the UK must take “targeted and proportionate measures now” amid concerns over the new Omicron Covid-19 variant.
“I must stress this: As always, with a new variant, there are many things we just cannot know at this early stage. Our scientists are learning more hour by hour. It does appear that Omicron spreads very rapidly and can be spread between people who are double vaccinated. There is also a very extensive mutation, which means it diverges quite significantly from previous configurations of the virus, and as a result, it might at least in part reduce the protection of our vaccines over time,” Johnson said in a press conference.
Two cases of the variant have been detected in the UK so far.
Johnson also announced additional measures:
“We’re not going to stop people traveling. But we will require anyone who enters the UK to take a PCR test by the end of the second day after their arrival and to self-isolate until they have a negative result,” Johnson said. “…In addition to the measures we’re already taking to locate those who have been in countries of concern over the last 10 days, we will require all contacts of those who test positive with a suspected case of Omicron to self-isolate for 10 days regardless of your vaccination status.”
The prime minister said his country will also “boost the booster campaign” in an effort to get as many people possible their vaccine booster shot.
British officials now report that the nation has its first 2 cases of the COVID Omicron Variant, with Africa travel connection.
The UK now adds Malawi, Mozambique, Zambia, Angola to its travel red list.—“If you have returned from there in the last 10 days you must isolate & get PCR tests”..
Some
Feel that this sudden emergence indicates it is already global and spread without any knowledge of it occurring.. developing..
Developing..
In addition to the U.K, cases have been reported in travelers in Belgium, Israel and Hong Kong. Germany also said it suspected a positive case and Dutch authorities were testing whether 61 people who arrived on two flights from South Africa with COVID-19 have the omicron variant…
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Reuters reporting
The World Health Organization announced Friday it was naming a new Covid-19 variant “Omicron,” skipping over a politically sensitive letter of the Greek alphabet.
The WHO made the announcement about the B.1.1.529 variant out of Johannesburg, South Africa, passing over a letter many observers presumed would be next — “Nu” — as well as the subsequent letter, “Xi,” which composes part of Chinese leader Xi Jinping‘s name.
— Read on www.mediaite.com/news/world-health-organization-skips-greek-letter-xi-in-naming-new-covid-variant/
The new variant is not going to be called the Nu…
Instead the World Health Organization designated B.1.1.529 as a variant of concern and labels it “Omicron”.:
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The Drudge Report blared with a red fonted headline: The WHO is spooked over a new COVID mutation..
The new discovery, called B.1.1529 until a Greek letter is assigned.. but at this point it was discovered in South Africa..
“Here is a mutation variant of serious concern,” Health Minister Joe Phaahla said at the same media event. “We were hopeful that we might have a longer break in between waves — possibly that it would hold off to late December or even next year January.”
MORE..
The new variant is likely to have evolved during a chronic infection of an immuno-compromised person, possibly in an untreated HIV/AIDS patient, Francois Balloux, director of the UCL Genetics Institute, said in a statement published by the Science Media Centre…
Virologists have detected almost 100 cases linked to the variant in the South Africa to date.
Other nations across the world, Europe, and even the United States are joining South Africa in a surge of cases…
From the UK GUARDIAN, much more extensive reporting:
The variant was first spotted in Botswana, where three cases have now been sequenced. Six more have been confirmed in South Africa, and one in Hong Kong in a traveller returning from South Africa. Dr Tom Peacock, a virologist at Imperial College London, posted details of the new variant on a genome-sharing website, noting that the “incredibly high amount of spike mutations suggest this could be of real concern”. In a series of tweets, Peacock said it “very, very much should be monitored due to that horrific spike profile”, but added that it may turn out to be an “odd cluster” that is not very transmissible. “I hope that’s the case,” he wrote.
It started in the beginning of October with only 3 cases.. it has bloomed into a disaster ..
Now, eight residents have died, and 67 residents and 22 staff members caught COVID-19 sometime in the past month and a half. Nursing home officials said 48 residents and 21 staff members have recovered from the virus.
The state Department of Public Health said they’re monitoring and providing on-site consultation at this facility.
— Read on www.nbcconnecticut.com/news/coronavirus/8-dead-dozens-infected-with-covid-19-due-to-outbreak-at-connecticut-nursing-home/2652161/
Reports indicate that those who are sick or died were fully vaccinated ..
Developing. Unfortunately ..
A new COVID variant identified in a handful of European countries is raising concerns among some health professionals because there are changes to the coronavirus spike protein that have never been seen before.
The variant, known either as B.1.X or B.1.640, was first reported by the French paper Le Telegramme after it infected 24 people at a French school in the Brittany region last month. When the variant was discovered in France, the school at which the outbreak occurred was forced to close half of its classes, Le Telegramme reported.
— Read on m.jpost.com/health-and-wellness/coronavirus/new-covid-variant-found-in-france-reason-for-panic-or-not-quite-yet-684878
A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit, helmed by one judge who was appointed by President Ronald Reagan and two others who were appointed by President Donald Trump, issued the ruling Friday, after temporarily halting the mandate last weekend in response to lawsuits filed by Republican-aligned businesses and legal groups.
Calling the requirement a “mandate,” the court said the rule, instituted through the Labor Department, “grossly exceeds OSHA’s statutory authority,” according to the opinion, written by Judge Kurt D. Engelhardt and joined by Judges Edith H. Jones and Stuart Kyle Duncan.
“Rather than a delicately handled scalpel, the Mandate is a one-size fits-all sledgehammer that makes hardly any attempt to account for differences in workplaces (and workers) that have more than a little bearing on
— Read on www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/federal-appeals-court-halts-biden-administrations-vaccine-requirement-delivering-policy-a-major-blow/ar-AAQE2Dh
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