The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has issued a travel warning to people traveling to the United States, urging travelers not be complacent about being protected against coronavirus. This is due in part because of an increase in cases across Europe that have been difficult to track down with testing. Airports are taking extra precautions following this notice.
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New travel restrictions may take effect only weeks after international travel for vaccinated visitors to the United States became more readily available.Credit… The New York Times’ Bryan Anselm
WASHINGTON, D.C. — According to a senior administration official, the Biden administration is considering methods to toughen coronavirus testing and screening for persons travelling to the United States, including perhaps requiring all travelers to submit a negative result from a test done within 24 hours of departure.
The decision to improve the testing procedure comes amid rising worry about the Omicron version of the virus, a highly mutated strain of the virus that was initially found by experts in South Africa and has now spread to over a dozen nations across the globe.
Officials were examining whether current testing — which allows fully vaccinated people to take a Covid test up to three days before departing on a flight to the United States — was stringent enough, according to the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because no final decisions had been made.
President Biden has said that he would outline his measures to strengthen the battle against the epidemic on Thursday. It’s unclear if he’ll announce harsher testing requirements for overseas passengers at Thursday’s address, as The Washington Post initially reported.
The emergence of the Omicron strain caused Natalie Quillian, the White House’s deputy coordinator for the Covid response, to re-evaluate the administration’s efforts to verify that persons entering the nation were not carrying the virus, she said in an interview on Monday.
“We’re always thinking about how we might improve that transportation infrastructure,” she added. “For example, we’re now evaluating all of our tests to ensure that they’re successful in detecting this variation.”
“If we discovered that a test was not successful in picking up the variation, we would remove it from the list of tests that are acceptable for entry into the nation,” she continued.
The new medicines are being hailed by health experts all across the globe as a way to minimize the number of severe cases and save lives. Shutterstock/EPA/EPA/EPA/EPA/EPA/EPA/EPA/EPA/EPA/EPA
On Tuesday, a federal advisory group agreed to propose that the government legalize the use of an antiviral medication to counteract the severe effects of Covid-19 for the first time.
While public health authorities across the globe hurried to shore up their defenses against the newly emerged Omicron form of the coronavirus, the advisory group supported Merck’s tablet by an unexpectedly narrow 13-to-10 majority.
The Merck medication, molnupiravir, has been demonstrated to minimize the incidence of Covid-related hospitalization and mortality. Within days, the medication may be approved for use in the United States and accessible to patients.
The FDA may also approve a comparable tablet from Pfizer, which seems to be substantially more successful than Merck’s, in the coming weeks. The introduction of the two simple medicines together might offer a buffer against a resurgent pathogen.
The Food and Drug Administration’s advisory council, which consists of antimicrobial drug specialists, recommended that Merck’s medication be approved for those who have Covid and are at high risk of getting very unwell. That would most certainly cover tens of millions of Americans over the age of 65 who are overweight, diabetic, or have heart problems.
However, the committee’s narrow decision indicated worries about the pill’s efficacy and the possibility of reproductive damage.
Dr. David Hardy, an infectious disease specialist in Los Angeles, remarked, “The effectiveness of this medication is not astoundingly excellent.” Despite this, he voted to endorse the medicine, stating that “something like this is needed.”
Other members of the committee who voted against approval argued additional study on the drug’s safety was required. Dr. Sankar Swaminathan, an infectious disease expert at the University of Utah, stated, “The possibility of broad impacts on possible birth abnormalities, particularly delayed effects on the male, has not been fully researched.”
The tablets, which will be prescribed by physicians and delivered by pharmacists, are much more convenient than the monoclonal antibody therapies that have traditionally been used to help high-risk Covid patients, and are anticipated to reach many more individuals. Antibody therapies are costly and are usually administered intravenously in hospitals or clinics.
The Biden administration is anticipating that the arrival of antiviral medications from Merck and Pfizer would aid in the conclusion of the pandemic’s most intense phase. Millions of treatment sessions of the new tablets have been secured thanks to billions of dollars invested by the US government.
People infected with the Delta, Mu, and Gamma forms of the coronavirus were largely recruited in Merck’s clinical studies. Scientists have yet to conduct tests to evaluate how effective the tablets are at preventing Omicron viruses from multiplying. Even if the variation may occasionally avoid vaccinations and monoclonal antibodies, there are grounds to believe they would remain effective.
— Carl Zimmer and Rebecca Robbins
In New York City, protesters demonstrate against vaccination regulations. Credit… Getty Images/Stephanie Keith
On Tuesday, a federal court ordered a preliminary injunction to stop President Biden’s countrywide vaccination requirement for health-care employees from taking effect next week.
Judge Terry A. Doughty’s injunction essentially broadened a previous ruling imposed by a federal court in Missouri on Monday. The previous one had only applied to ten states that had joined a lawsuit challenging the president’s order to mandate all health care workers in hospitals and elderly homes to have at least their first shot by December 6 and to be completely vaccinated by January 4.
Judge Doughty of the United States District Court for the Western District of Louisiana observed, “There is no doubt that mandating a vaccination to 10.3 million health-care employees is something that Congress, not a government agency, should undertake.” “It is not apparent that even a congressional act requiring a vaccination would be constitutional,” he continued.
He went on to say that the plaintiffs had a “interest in preventing its people from being forced to submit to vaccines” and in avoiding employment losses and tax income as a consequence of the requirement.
In an attempt to prevent epidemics that were often transmitted from communities into medical settings like nursing homes, some towns and states had already enforced their own vaccination requirements for health care employees. The Delta variety surged across nursing facilities last summer, generating surges in staff and resident illnesses as well as overloading hospitals in several states with another Covid outbreak.
Prior to the president’s request for countrywide compliance, several of the largest hospital chains and some large nursing facility owners started enforcing staff immunizations. Vaccinations among health-care workers have climbed over the summer, yet the number of cases recorded each week among residents and staff remains in the thousands. Nursing home employees are immunized at a rate of more than 74 percent nationwide, however certain locations have substantially lower rates.
Attorney General Jeff Landry of Louisiana, who is spearheading a 14-state lawsuit against the requirement, claimed the federal mandate will rip holes in state budgets and worsen shortages in healthcare facilities.
The Biden administration connected vaccination compliance to federal funds, forcing millions of employees at hospitals, nursing homes, and other health institutions that depend significantly on Medicare or Medicaid to get immunized. However, many health care providers, particularly nursing home and rural hospital owners, claimed that staff members who refused to get inoculated would quit, exacerbating staffing shortages that had existed in the sector before to the epidemic.
These criticisms fueled resistance in several states, including Texas and Florida, which had been adamantly opposed to federal mandates on immunizations, mask use, and other public health programs throughout the epidemic.
More than a dozen states and several corporations banded together to oppose a larger rule requiring private firms with 100 or more employees to demand company-wide vaccination. The order has also been temporarily halted by an appeals court, pending the outcome of the challengers’ allegations that the Occupational Safety and Health Administration overstepped its power.
The preliminary injunction obtained on Tuesday is the first stage in the legal battle against the vaccination requirement. The cases must still be heard by a judge, and any lower-court decision will almost certainly be appealed.
— Reed Abelson and Azi Paybarah
In August, I was given the first dosage of the Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus vaccine in San Francisco. Credit… Mike The New York Times’ Kai Chen
According to Pfizer’s CEO, Albert Bourla, the firm requested federal authorities on Tuesday to approve a booster dose of its coronavirus vaccine for 16- and 17-year-olds. Several million youngsters are expected to be eligible for a second injection as a result of the request.
According to persons familiar with the plans, the Food and Drug Administration is anticipated to respond quickly on Pfizer’s request, maybe within a week.
The vaccine, produced with BioNTech, was approved for everyone 16 and older on an emergency basis a year ago, and it was officially approved for that age group in August. Those aged 18 and above, however, are eligible for booster doses at this time.
Pfizer and Moderna vaccine recipients are eligible for a follow-up injection six months following their second dose. Those who get the Johnson & Johnson vaccination, which is a one-shot regimen, are eligible for a booster dose two months later.
2.3 million 16- and 17-year-olds had their second dosage of Pfizer’s vaccine at least six months ago, according to statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The figure is expected to reach almost three million by the end of the year, accounting for 36 percent of the population in that age bracket.
The Biden administration’s booster launch is now in full speed, after months of concern and conflict among scientific experts. On Nov. 19, all adults were eligible for booster injections, however the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention only advised them for persons over 50 and those living in long-term care facilities.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention changed its recommendation on Monday, advising all people to receive a booster injection six months after their second dosage of Moderna’s or Pfizer’s vaccine or two months after their Johnson & Johnson shot. Boosters, according to President Biden, are part of the administration’s effort to tackle the new variety, Omicron.
Since the Food and Drug Administration officially permitted the additional shots for specified demographic groups in late September, more than 40 million individuals have received an extra dose. According to the C.D.C.’s statistics, at least additional 90 million people are now eligible for boosters.
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The director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Dr. Rochelle P. Walensky, said the agency was attempting to detect and control any possible instances of the coronavirus Omicron variety in the United States, but that no cases had been discovered so far. CreditCredit… The New York Times’ Stefani Reynolds
Top government health authorities said on Tuesday that they were extending a monitoring program at several of the country’s busiest airports as part of a massive attempt to find and manage what may be the country’s first instances of the Omicron coronavirus type.
At a White House press briefing on the pandemic, Dr. Rochelle P. Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said the agency was “actively seeking” for the variation but had not discovered one yet among the numerous positive viral samples sequenced throughout the country each week. The Delta variety, which caused a disastrous summer surge, still accounts for 99.9% of the samples.
In the hunt for probable Omicron instances, four international airports — New York, Atlanta, Newark, and San Francisco — would improve screening. “This initiative enables for more Covid testing for particular overseas immigrants, enhancing our ability to detect persons with Covid-19 upon arrival in the United States,” she said.
When asked if President Biden planned to tighten recently relaxed restrictions on travel between the US and Canada in light of the Omicron variant, White House press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters separately on Tuesday that all decisions would be based on the president’s medical advisers’ recommendations. Those advisors, she claimed, had not advised any additional limits.
Last week, the White House imposed a travel restriction affecting eight nations in southern Africa, a move that several global health experts questioned as a kind of retribution against South Africa for its honesty.
Scientists and health authorities across the world are concerned that the new strain, which has an alarmingly high number of mutations, could result in a more transmissible virus that is less responsive to vaccinations. At the press conference with Dr. Walensky, Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, the government’s top infectious disease specialist, underlined that it was still too early to know how harmful the variation may be. Mr. Biden said on Monday that the mutation is “cause for alarm, not panic.”
On Tuesday, Dr. Fauci emphasized that it might be weeks before scientists examining the new virus could learn more about its features. “We are hoping, and I believe we have good cause to hope,” Dr. Fauci continued, “that there will be some degree of protection” from current vaccinations. “Be cautious with bread crumbs,” he advised when asked about claims that the variation was only causing moderate sickness in younger individuals. They may not be able to tell you what sort of bread you have.”
The C.D.C. is looking at measures to make foreign travel safer, including checking for the virus closer to a traveler’s flight and “extra post-arrival testing and quarantine,” according to Dr. Walensky. She said the CDC was working with airlines to gather passenger information that might be used for contact tracing if an Omicron case was identified.
Dr. Walensky also reported an ongoing domestic effort to detect early instances of the variation, adding that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention was having frequent conversations with local health authorities, public health groups, and state labs that assist with sample sequencing.
She said the US has made significant progress this year in increasing the quantity of viral samples tested for possibly dangerous versions, sequencing around 80,000 samples every week and one in every seven positive P.C.R. test tests, a volume that implies the virus will be discovered soon.
Dr. Fauci and Dr. Walensky urged individuals to receive their booster shots, claiming that they would give additional protection against the new type. Over 100 million fully vaccinated American people were entitled for the doses but had not yet gotten one, according to Jeffrey D. Zients, the White House’s Covid-19 response coordinator.
Even though the vaccination was designed to battle the original type of the coronavirus, a rush of protective antibodies following a booster dose would likely be formidable against Omicron, helping to avoid serious disease, according to Dr. Fauci.
According to Mr. Zients, the federal government was already considering how a vaccination campaign with a freshly manufactured injection would look, while pharmaceutical firms looked into the possibilities. “This includes discussions about the best regulatory process for review and authorizations,” he said.
According to Mr. Zients, a preliminary evaluation by federal officials indicated that viral testing used in the United States would be able to identify the variation.
The interim Food and Drug Administration commissioner, Dr. Janet Woodcock, said in a statement Tuesday that the agency was keeping an eye on the new variation, following instructions regulators issued earlier this year on how it would review novel variant-specific vaccinations on a fast track.
In a Washington Post opinion piece published this week, two senior federal vaccine regulators suggested that younger, healthier persons with a less urgent need for a booster dosage could be better off waiting for a retooled vaccine that more accurately targets a dangerous new version.
Maggie Astor contributed to this story.
In Juba, South Sudan, Johnson Gaga, 22, got the Johnson & Johnson vaccination. Through the Covax program, the United States contributed the dosage. Credit… The New York Times’ Lynsey Addario
On Tuesday, the leader of the United Nations-backed global vaccination distribution program said that in the previous 24 hours, the program had distributed more than 11 million doses, making it the biggest day of delivery ever.
Seth Berkley, the initiative’s administrator, said the group had been requesting “higher quality contributions” and more information on when doses would come from donors and vaccine makers for months. “That message is just beginning to be heard,” he remarked on Twitter.
Covax, a multibillion-dollar partnership between international health organizations and non-profits, was created to guarantee that impoverished nations had access to coronavirus vaccines while wealthier countries did not stockpile them. It has struggled with that mission and has had to reduce its objectives.
Rich, highly vaccinated nations like the United States, the United Kingdom, and Japan have expanded their booster programs in response to the new Omicron form, while poorer, less vaccinated countries like South Africa are still striving to provide initial doses to inhabitants.
According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, a health group that tracks coronavirus infections and vaccine distribution, only around 5% of individuals living in low-income countries have gotten even one vaccination dose.
Mr. Berkley stated on Twitter, “Getting dosages to nations is the simple part.” Making the dosages accessible “is more difficult and needs active engagement” among producers, shipping businesses, and government authorities in those nations.
Aspen Pharmacare, a South African pharmaceutical business, is negotiating an agreement to manufacture coronavirus vaccines for distribution throughout Africa. Credit… Reuters/Siphiwe Sibeko
Aspen Pharmacare, a South African pharmaceutical company, said on Tuesday that it has reached a deal to manage the manufacture of the Covid-19 vaccine in Africa for the first time.
Under the terms of the agreement, Aspen will bottle and distribute the Johnson & Johnson vaccine under the brand name Aspenovax across Africa. Aspen would have the right to decide who would get the vaccination, how much it would cost, and to whom it would be marketed — but not to make the vaccine itself. Instead, Johnson & Johnson would instruct other facilities to produce the components, which would then be sent to Aspen to be mixed into vaccine doses.
Control of Covid vaccine intellectual property has been a topic of growing controversy in the argument over how to effectively address Africa’s massive vaccination availability gap.
Under a prior deal, Aspen already bottles the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, but as a contract producer, it has no influence in where the doses are sent. Millions of doses packaged at Aspen’s factory in Gqeberha were sold to other areas of the globe earlier this year, at a period when many African nations had only vaccinated less than 5% of their populations. The New York Times reported the arrangement, which drew widespread condemnation, and the new pact might prevent a repeat of that circumstance in the future.
According to Strive Masiyiwa, the African Union’s special envoy on Covid, achieving 70% vaccination coverage in Africa will need 900 million vaccine doses.
After a coronavirus-related shutdown went into place on Monday, the streets of Amsterdam were almost deserted. Credit… Associated Press/Peter Dejong
According to Dutch health experts, two persons who tested positive for the coronavirus in the Netherlands more than a week ago were infected with the Omicron strain.
The timing is significant because it indicates that the variant had been present in the country for at least a week before two flights from South Africa arrived on Friday, and before the World Health Organization designated Omicron as a “variant of concern,” prompting countries around the world to ban flights from southern Africa, where researchers first discovered the variant.
The Omicron coronavirus strain was discovered in two test samples collected on November 19 and November 23, according to a statement released by the Dutch health ministry on Tuesday. “It’s unclear if these individuals also traveled to Southern Africa.”
Municipal health services took the two samples at public testing facilities, and health authorities have begun contact tracing in those regions, according to Dutch health experts.
Omicron’s diagnosis in Botswana and South Africa has produced the most uncertain moment of the pandemic since the extremely infectious Delta variety surfaced in the spring, despite the fact that nothing is known about how transmissible it is or whether it can resist current vaccinations.
The release from the Netherlands also underlined the fact that scientists are still unsure of where or when the variation first appeared. According to Gisaid, a worldwide database for disease variations, the first known sample of the Omicron variant was obtained on Nov. 9 in South Africa.
Officials throughout Europe are concerned that Omicron would add to the burden on nations currently dealing with some of the worst coronavirus outbreaks in history. France was one of them, reporting 47,000 new cases in the previous 24 hours and a high increase in hospitalizations, all of which were suspected to be caused by the Delta type.
According to the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control, 44 cases of the new variety have been verified in 11 European countries thus far. In the United Kingdom, health authorities reported at least 22 confirmed Omicron cases, including 13 in England and 9 in Scotland, triggering a fresh round of public health restrictions.
The agency’s head, Andrea Ammon, said in an online press conference that all of the verified cases in Europe had minimal or no symptoms, and that officials were looking into six other “possible” cases. She stated that health authorities were doing further tests on patients who had recovered from Omicron-related illnesses to see how the variation behaved in vaccinated people, and that more information would be available in a “few of weeks.”
As the World Health Organization warned that the danger presented by the extensively mutated form was “extremely significant,” countries throughout the European Union hurried to tighten travel restrictions in the hopes of halting its spread.
However, the World Health Organization’s top official warned governments on Tuesday that their actions were “not evidence-based.”
In Geneva, Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus remarked, “We still have more questions than answers concerning the influence of Omicron on transmission, severity of illness, and the efficiency of testing, therapies, and vaccinations.”
The news by Dutch authorities about the two Omicron incidents followed a hectic sequence of closures in Amsterdam on Friday, which delayed 600 people on two planes from South Africa for a period. On those flights, 61 people tested positive for the coronavirus, with at least 14 of them having the Omicron variety.
In reaction to a Covid wave that started before Omicron was detected, the Netherlands tightened regulations beginning on Sunday, requiring numerous enterprises, including pubs, restaurants, and theaters, to shut from 5 p.m. to 5 a.m. On Monday, Dutch health authorities recorded more than 22,000 new coronavirus cases, one of the largest daily totals seen in the nation since the outbreak started.
Carl Zimmer, Adeel Hassan, Megan Specia, and Aurelien Breeden contributed reporting.
Gayle Smith, the State Department’s worldwide Covid-19 response and health security coordinator, talked on the United States’ involvement in combatting the epidemic throughout the globe in April in Washington. Credit… Al Drago took this shot of the pool.
The State Department’s coronavirus vaccine envoy is stepping down after less than a year on the job, just as the new Omicron variety is demonstrating the dangers of failing to protect broad portions of the globe against the virus.
Gayle E. Smith, the envoy, took a leave of absence from her work as CEO of the ONE Campaign, an advocacy group dedicated to ending poverty and avoidable illness, in April to join the Biden administration. She did not reply to a request for comment on Tuesday, and it was unclear why she was quitting the envoy job now. People close to her claim she remained at the government job for longer than the six months she had agreed to.
“She leaves behind a great set of achievements, a strong team and network ready to continue on our critical work, and a thorough set of next actions to build on our success,” said Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken in a statement announcing Ms. Smith’s resignation on Tuesday.
“Our effort to eradicate this epidemic and avoid future health risks is not done,” he continued, “as Gayle has mentioned many times.”
More coronavirus vaccine doses have been provided to Covax, the worldwide distribution program, by the United States than by any other nation. 260 million vaccine doses were sent to more than 110 nations and economic blocs during Ms. Smith’s tenure, and Mr. Blinken said the US was “well on our way” to delivering the 1.2 billion doses that President Biden pledged.
According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, a health group that tracks coronavirus infections and vaccine distribution, only around 5% of individuals living in low-income countries have gotten even one vaccination dose.
Approximately 8% of individuals in Africa have got one dosage, leaving hundreds of millions of people exposed to novel variations that might otherwise be immune to vaccinations. The appearance of the Omicron variety, which was first found in southern Africa last week, is an example of what scientists have been warning about for more than a year if vaccinations are not made widely accessible globally, not just in wealthier countries.
Jen Kates, the Kaiser Family Foundation’s head of global health and HIV policy, said, “We’re very far behind in reaching any type of parity” in vaccine distribution. “At this moment, we’re a long way off.”
Ms. Kates said the Biden administration deserved credit for attempting to persuade other donors to send more vaccines to poorer nations, despite Mr. Biden’s emphasis on vaccination Americans.
She pointed out that supplying the cold storage and transportation needed to “get injections in arms” when vaccination doses arrive remains a major challenge in many low-income nations.
“That’s going to require a lot more money and a lot more work than what we’ve done so far,” Ms. Kates said.
Mary Beth Goodman, a senior member of the State Department’s vaccine diplomacy office who has worked on global health, anti-corruption, and economic projects throughout Democratic administrations, will take Ms. Smith’s post for the time being. Officials suggested a permanent envoy will be selected in the coming weeks.
On Monday, Chinese President Xi Jinping spoke via video connection at the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation in Dakar, Senegal. Credit… Getty Images/Seyllou/Agence France-Presse
As Africa battles the new Omicron coronavirus type, China’s leader, Xi Jinping, has promised to supply another billion doses of vaccinations to the world’s least immunized continent.
Mr. Xi’s declaration is part of China’s ongoing campaign to polish its image as a responsible global power aiding in the battle against the epidemic, and it comes at a critical moment for African nations, particularly those in the south, where Omicron was originally discovered. Scientists are concerned that Omicron is already spreading swiftly there, but they warn that much about the variety, including where it came from, is unclear.
South African health authorities said on Monday that Omicron looked to be the source of a new outbreak in the country. According to statistics from Johns Hopkins University’s Center for Systems Science and Engineering, the daily average of new cases in the nation has surged by more than 1,500 percent in the last two weeks, but the case counts remain considerably below the year’s previous high.
Source: Johns Hopkins University’s Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE). The daily average is generated using data from the previous seven days.
Officials cautioned the public not to be alarmed by the variety, saying it was too early to determine if it has a greater incidence of transmission or causes more hospitalizations or severe sickness.
Africa has the lowest vaccination rates of any continent, with just 10.3% of the population getting at least one shot, compared to rates of at least 60% to over 80% in Europe, Asia, Latin America, and the United States and Canada.
However, vaccine doses have begun to flow into parts of Africa in recent weeks, and nations such as South Africa — where roughly one-quarter of the population is completely immunized, one of the highest rates on the continent — are now grappling with how to quickly deliver them. “Countries are trying to scale up,” said Shabir Mahdi, a virologist at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, where dosages are accessible.
Mr. Xi’s declaration, delivered via video connection late Monday at the opening of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation, seemed to be part of a broader attempt to deflect attention away from Beijing’s early handling of the coronavirus problem.
He stated that 600 million vaccine doses would be donated, with the remainder coming from other sources such as joint production between Chinese companies and African countries. China would also send 1,500 doctors and public health professionals to Africa, he added.
Mr. Xi said that China wants to assist the African Union in reaching its target of vaccinating 60% of the continent’s population by 2022.
Officials from China earlier said that they would make their vaccinations more inexpensive and prioritize Africa, where they have quickly boosted their spending in recent years. The latest offer of one billion doses follows China’s prior commitment to the continent of more than 155 million injections. According to Bridge Beijing, a company that studies China’s effect on global health, around 107 million have been given to 46 African nations so far.
Following the discovery of Omicron, The Global Times, a Communist Party-controlled Chinese newspaper, bragged of China’s achievement in preventing the spread of the coronavirus and said that the West was paying the price for its selfish actions.
The article said that “Western nations hold the majority of the resources required to combat the Covid-19 outbreak.” “However, they have failed to stop the HIV’s spread, exposing the infection to an increasing number of poor nations.”
However, there are concerns regarding the vaccinations developed in China’s effectiveness. Following breakouts this year frightened some nations who had depended largely on them to inoculate substantial portions of their populations.
Scientists throughout the globe are racing to see whether existing vaccinations can protect against Omicron, which adds to the uncertainty. Sinovac Biotech, a major vaccine manufacturer in China, informed The Global Times that it was also testing its vaccine against Omicron.
— Lynsey Chutel and Amy Qin
A GLOBAL REVIEW
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Greece’s Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis stated people aged 60 and above who have not had their first vaccination by January 16 would be fined 100 euros ($113) each month. CreditCredit… Reuters/Alexandros Avramidis
On Tuesday, Greece’s prime minister stated that Covid injections would be mandatory for individuals aged 60 and over, with those who failed to schedule their first shot by January 16 facing monthly penalties of 100 euros ($113).
Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis told a cabinet meeting that over 500,000 individuals in Greece aged 60 and above had not been vaccinated, and that the penalties will go to public hospitals that have been overburdened by the epidemic.
Mr. Mitsotakis described the program as “an act of justice for the vaccinated,” saying he was concerned about punishing individuals but hoped they would perceive it as “encouragement, not repression.”
“I felt a responsibility to stand behind the most vulnerable, even if it displeased them briefly,” he added.
According to the Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins University, Greece is averaging more than 6,400 new cases per day, one of the highest rates since the outbreak began. Mr. Mitsotakis stated that additional free testing kits will be made available over the next two months, citing worries that the winter vacations might lead to greater spread.
Source: Johns Hopkins University’s Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE). The daily average is generated using data from the previous seven days.
More over 60% of Greece’s population has received all of their vaccinations. Unvaccinated persons are no longer permitted to enter cinemas, theaters, museums, or gymnasiums in Greece, which has joined a rising number of European countries in putting additional restrictions on those who have not had Covid vaccinations.
Other recent events from across the globe are included below.
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The British and Scottish governments stated on Tuesday that thirteen instances of the Omicron type had been detected in England and nine in Scotland, bringing the total number of known cases in the UK to 22. Nicola Sturgeon, Scotland’s first minister, said the nine cases were all tied to a single private event. Sajid Javid, Britain’s health minister, said it was unclear if all of the cases in England were related to travel to southern Africa, raising worries about community transmission.
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On Tuesday, Covax, a worldwide vaccine-sharing project, said that it has given more than 4.7 million doses to North Korea, which is yet to deliver any vaccinations. The secretive government has not acknowledged any coronavirus cases and has previously rejected down offers of doses from Covax, China, and Russia. According to official media, North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong-un, warned in June that failings in his country’s anti-pandemic effort had produced a “grave calamity.”
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Dr. Prabin Nepal, a spokeswoman for the Armed Police Force Hospital outside Kathmandu, said Cholendra Shumsher Rana, the top judge of Nepal’s Supreme Court, tested positive for the coronavirus on Monday evening and has pneumonia, but is in stable condition. Mr. Rana, a prominent role in Nepal’s recent political instability and a Himalayan nation heavily struck by the coronavirus in terms of economics, has been under increasing pressure to retire over corruption allegations, and court observers in Nepal say there’s a high possibility he won’t return to the bench.
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Except for travellers traveling from the United States, Canada is requiring all flying travelers, both vaccinated and unvaccinated, to be tested for Covid-19 at the airport and to isolate until the findings are returned. The additional restrictions are in reaction to the discovery of the novel Omicron coronavirus strain in Canada. In order to address the new variety, the government has also instructed its vaccination advisory group to reassess guidelines on booster injections.
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Brazil’s first verified case of the Omicron variety was discovered when a couple who recently went from South Africa to Brazil both tested positive, according to health authorities. The existence of the variation is being verified in a second sample, which would be the first in Latin America.
Megan Specia, Mark Landler, Jin Yu Young, Bhadra Sharma, Vjosa Isai, and Ernesto Londoo provided reporting.
In September, a vial of Regeneron was seen at the Sarasota Memorial Urgent Care Center in Sarasota, Fla. Credit… Reuters/Shannon Stapleton
On Tuesday, Regeneron said that their Covid-19 antibody therapy may be less effective against the Omicron coronavirus variation, implying that the popular and generally helpful monoclonal antibody medications may need to be upgraded if the new variety spreads quickly.
Previous laboratory tests and computer modeling of specific changes in the Omicron version show that they may reduce the treatment’s effectiveness, according to the firm. However, tests employing the variant’s whole sequences have yet to be conducted, according to the report.
According to the business, it has already begun testing new antibody medication candidates, with early results indicating that some of them “may have the potential to maintain efficacy against the Omicron version.” More information is due in the following month, according to the report.
In an interview with The Wall Street Journal, Regeneron’s president and chief scientific officer, Dr. George Yancopoulos, said, “What we have to say is, our urgency has intensified in the last six days.” “What began as a back-up plan has now become much more critical.”
Scientists are concerned about the Omicron variety because it has mutations in the spike protein, which is the target of Regeneron and Eli Lilly’s government-supplied monoclonal antibody therapy.
Scientists have also been trying to acquire information on how effective existing Omicron vaccinations will be. Antiviral medications, such as those from Merck and Pfizer that federal authorities are contemplating approving shortly, should be effective against the variation because they target a different part of the virus than where Omicron’s mutations are grouped.
Monoclonal antibody therapies employ lab-made copies of the antibodies that individuals naturally produce while battling an infection and are administered in a single infusion. They have been demonstrated to drastically reduce the length of time that patients experience symptoms. Regeneron’s combination lowers the likelihood of hospitalization by 70%.
The medication proved successful against the Delta type of the virus, which is still the most common in the United States, according to the firm.
Europe has become the epicenter of the epidemic once again. Each day, more cases are recorded than at any other time throughout the outbreak. And governments have been compelled to reintroduce the sorts of stringent controls that most Europeans believed were in place to begin with.
The discovery of the Omicron variety has heightened the urgency with which European authorities are attempting to stem the tide. The novel version has been found in tourists from more than ten European nations, including Denmark, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom.
In reaction to the new danger, European leaders have attempted to find a balance between increasing prudence and avoiding panic. The winter increase, on the other hand, has brought to light the differences in vaccination rates throughout the continent. Despite the fact that infections are on the rise in several countries, only those with the lowest vaccination rates are seeing Covid-19 mortality approach the levels seen following comparable spikes last winter.
Here’s a deeper look at the areas of Europe where cases are on the rise:
On Sunday, at Ben Gurion International Airport in Tel Aviv. Credit… Shutterstock, Abir Sultan/EPA
Officials said a government-wide “war scenario” staged earlier in November affected Israel’s quick reaction to the discovery of the Omicron strain, which included shutting its borders to nonresident foreigners.
Senior officials simulated how they would react to a fictitious situation that was very comparable to what is occurring today in that exercise.
On Nov. 11, Israeli authorities participated in a daylong practice in which they had to react to a hypothetical new “Omega” virus strain that was more resistant to immunizations and spread to Israel from two other countries in the second half of November.
Officials in the simulation, including Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, chose to leave Israel’s borders open to visitors until December, only to discover that at the end of the game, the country’s hospitals were overburdened with patients. According to Yaacov Ayish, a former general who assisted in the planning of the practice, the right approach would have been to block Israel’s borders to most foreigners immediately.
Mr. Ayish said, “It was one of the teachings.” “All government departments and the military were forced to look at it as a possibility.”
Source: Johns Hopkins University’s Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE). The daily average is generated using data from the previous seven days.
According to Keren Hajioff, a spokesman for Mr. Bennett, the conclusion was one of the elements that prompted Israel’s real-life decision on Saturday night to ban all foreign visitors, a step it took before any other nation.
Participants were provided fake television news broadcasts throughout the exercise to help establish the scene for the next round of the simulation. At least one further conclusion emerged from the practice, which is reflected in Israel’s response: Officials concluded that the current supply of P.C.R. tests may not be sophisticated enough to identify future viral types.
According to Ms. Hajioff, this prompted the Israeli government to acquire millions of higher-quality P.C.R. tests, which are currently used to screen for Omicron.
On Sunday, Israel’s cabinet gave Shin Bet, the country’s internal spy agency, temporary authorization to inspect the phone records of persons with proven cases of Omicron in order to find out who they recently met. During previous pandemic waves, the agency was granted comparable powers.
On Tuesday, passengers arriving from South Africa were tested for the Coronavirus Omicron subtype in a specially developed test lane at Schiphol airport in the Netherlands. Credit… EPA/Remko De Waal/Shutterstock
The Omicron variety made headlines a week ago when researchers in southern Africa discovered a coronavirus strain with 50 mutations.
Thirty of the changes are on the spike protein, which is perhaps the most critical portion of the virus, and 26 of them are new alterations. The Delta variation, on the other hand, contained ten distinct alterations, while Beta had six.
When it comes to coronavirus mutations, scientists are concerned about three things: Is the new variety more infectious than the old one? Is this going to make people sicker? And how will vaccinations counteract it?
This edition of “The Daily” looks at when answers to these three questions will be available, as well as the finding of the variation and worldwide reaction to it. Listen to the following:
What Is the Omicron Variant, as heard on ‘The Daily’?
According to the World Health Organization, this coronavirus mutation presents a very high danger to public health. What led them to this conclusion?
The New York Times is to thank for this.
One of the many unknowns surrounding the novel coronavirus variety known as Omicron, named after the Greek alphabet’s 15th letter, has caught the attention of many English speakers: How do you say it?
Experts claim that there is no universally accepted English pronunciation.
Merriam Webster recommends pronouncing it “OH-muh-kraan,” emphasizing the first syllable.
When a World Health Organization official, Dr. Maria Van Kerkhove, recently announced that the mutation was of concern, she put it that way.
Merriam Webster says it’s pronounced “AH-muh-kraan” in the United States. “OH-mee-kraan,” as British Prime Minister Boris Johnson put it last week, or “OH-my-kraan,” are less prevalent.
Apoorva Mandavilli, who covers the coronavirus and its variations for the New York Times podcast “The Daily,” said she was going with “AH-muh-kraan.”
“To be honest, I don’t believe it matters too much,” she remarked.
How to Say ‘Omicron’
In English, there are numerous ways to pronounce “Omicron,” a coronavirus strain named after the 15th letter of the Greek alphabet.
According to Dr. Andreas Willi, a comparative linguistics expert at Oxford University, the New Oxford English Dictionary has a different sound than Merriam-Webster. “Specifically, anything along the lines of ‘o-MIKE-Ron,’” he said.
The name derives from the Greek “o mikron,” which means “little o.” According to Dr. Willi, the term was pronounced in ancient Greek with the second syllable sounding like an English “me.”
Because the Greek term is transliterated for pronunciation into English, sounding similar to the phrase “omnipotent” but differing from its Latin “omni-potent” origin, the “AH-muh-kraan” pronunciation “makes perfect sense,” according to Peter Sokolowski, editor at large at Merriam Webster.
“There isn’t a bad response,” he continued.
“The issue of British vs. American pronunciation of the first syllable isn’t actually unique to this term,” Dr. Willi said. “Contrast the British and American pronunciations of the word ‘god.’”
According to Dr. Willi, the differences are due to the term being taken as a loanword and used by English people in various regions at different eras.
“When we say ‘Paris’ in English, it’s extremely different from the ‘correct’ French method of pronouncing the same word,” he said. “However, in a strict sense, it is scarcely incorrect.”
On Monday, a health care worker at New Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport tested for the coronavirus. Credit… Reuters/Anushree Fadnavis
The Omicron form has caused concern in India, which was struck hard by a deadly Covid outbreak this year, which was driven in part by another strain.
The new variation has compelled India’s government to reconsider its intention to restart scheduled foreign flights on December 15th. When Prime Minister Narendra Modi declared a statewide lockdown in March 2020, the flights were halted, but some were reinstated when the country created air travel arrangements with numerous countries.
While researchers predict it may be weeks before additional information regarding Omicron’s transmissibility and the severity of the sickness it causes becomes available, governments have hurried to enact new travel restrictions in an attempt to limit the disease’s spread.
Mr. Modi convened an emergency meeting on Monday to examine India’s travel laws. The government has just lately begun granting tourist permits, despite having the lowest daily case count since the outbreak began. India has also resumed exporting of locally produced vaccinations.
Source: Johns Hopkins University’s Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE). The daily average is generated using data from the previous seven days.
Hospitals in New Delhi, the capital, have been urged to be on high alert after a previous wave rattled the health care system, which was triggered in part by the Delta variety. Arvind Kejriwal, the mayor of New Delhi, has demanded Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s administration to ban all flights from nations where the new variety has been discovered.
Instead, India’s government published advice for tourists traveling from countries where the Omicron strain has been identified on Monday. Passengers travelling from Europe, South Africa, and other concerned countries will now be subjected to pre-departure testing. After testing negative, they must quarantine at home for seven days before taking another test on the eighth day.
Passengers will be required to present their travel history for the past 14 days, as well as the findings of a negative P.C.R. test, beginning on Wednesday, according to the authorities. Officials from the government stated a hospital had been set up to treat and isolate anybody who tested positive for Omicron.
At least 1,000 passengers from African nations where Omicron has been found have arrived in Mumbai, India’s financial center, in the last 15 days, according to officials.
