London, November 27 (BNA): Britain became the latest country to announce on Saturday cases of one of the new and potentially more contagious variants of the coronavirus, as world governments sought to bolster their defenses by imposing travel restrictions from countries in South Africa.
Britain’s health minister, Sajid Javid, has confirmed that two people have tested positive for the omicron variant in the southeastern England town of Chelmsford and in the central city of Nottingham.
He said the cases are linked and related to travel from South Africa, according to the Associated Press.
Javid said the two confirmed cases are self-isolating along with their families while contact tracing and targeted testing are underway.
He also said that arrivals from Angola, Malawi, Mozambique and Zambia will have to quarantine from Sunday, stressing the importance of the booster cakes.
Several countries have imposed restrictions on several African countries over the past two days including Australia, Brazil, Canada, the European Union, Iran, Japan, Thailand and the United States, in response to warnings about the transmissibility of the new virus – against WHO advice.
Pharmaceutical companies have expressed optimism that their vaccines can be improved to deal with the new alternative, although this may obviously take some time.
Despite the ban on flights, there are growing concerns that the alternative has already been widely deployed around the world.
In addition to the United Kingdom, cases have been reported in travelers in Belgium, Israel and Hong Kong. Germany also said it suspects a positive case, and Dutch authorities are testing whether 61 people who arrived on two flights from South Africa with COVID-19 have the omicron variant.
The planes arrived in the Netherlands from Johannesburg and Cape Town shortly after the Dutch government imposed a ban on flights from South African countries.
The 539 passengers who tested negative were allowed to return home or continue their flights to other countries. Under government regulations, those who live in the Netherlands and are allowed to return home must self-isolate for at least five days.
Meanwhile, a German official said there was a “very high probability” that the omicron variant had already arrived in the country.
The World Health Organization called the new variant omicron, describing it as a variant of concern due to a higher number of mutations and some early evidence that it carried a higher degree of contagion than other variants.
This means that people who have had COVID-19 and recover may have it again.
It may take weeks to see if current vaccines are less effective against it.
Nearly two years after the start of the pandemic that has killed more than 5 million people worldwide, countries are on high alert.
A number of drug companies, including AstraZeneca, Moderna, Novavax and Pfizer, have said they have plans to adapt their vaccines in light of the emergence of Omicron. Pfizer and partner BioNTech said they expect to be able to modify their vaccine in about 100 days.