Faced with the Omicron variant, Japan on Wednesday asked airlines to suspend new bookings to its territory for a month, although the WHO said travel bans were not preventing its spread.

Officially reported in South Africa on November 24, this highly contagious new variant would have actually started to spread around the world several days earlier, with Dutch health authorities announcing on Tuesday that Omicron was already circulating in the Netherlands on November 19.

The variant was detected in two test samples taken on November 19 and 23 and one of the two affected had not traveled recently, suggesting that Omicron was already circulating in the country, according to the Netherlands Institute of Health and of the environment (RIVM).

Nigeria, the most populous country in Africa, announced on Wednesday that it had recorded its first three cases in people who had traveled to South Africa.

WHO against travel bans

A few hours earlier, Brazil reported the first two cases (the first in Latin America) in travelers also coming from South Africa. "General travel bans will not prevent the spread" of this variant, the World Health Organization said in a technical paper. Faced with the panic which seems to take hold of the planet, the head of the organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, called Tuesday for “calm” and asked for a “rational” and “proportional” response.

He said he was "concerned that several member states are taking general and brutal measures which are neither evidence-based nor effective in themselves and which will only worsen inequalities" between countries.

Tokyo, however, on Wednesday asked airlines "not to accept new bookings for a month from December 1".

The pill against the Covid-19 in the process of being authorized

The announcement came as a second case of the Omicron variant was confirmed in the archipelago on Wednesday, in a traveler who arrived from Peru last week. Since South Africa reported the appearance of this new variant last week, many states have closed their borders to that country and its neighbors, sparking anger in the region. These measures "may have a negative impact on global health efforts during a pandemic by discouraging countries from reporting and sharing epidemiological and sequencing data," the WHO warned.

Possible hope for Covid-19 patients, a committee of American scientists spoke out on Tuesday in favor of the emergency authorization, in certain patients at risk, of the pill against this disease from the Merck laboratory in the United States.

The vote of these experts, at the end of a day of discussions, was however tight, with 13 for and 10 against, and the final decision on the approval of this drug will remain with the American agency of the drugs (FDA).

Towards compulsory vaccination in Germany?

As the world questions the response to the Omicron variant with multiple mutations, the leader of the vaccine manufacturer Moderna, Stéphane Bancel, predicted in an interview with the Financial Times a "significant drop" in the efficacy of the drugs. current serums. According to him, it will take several months to develop a new one. Various manufacturers, including Moderna, AstraZeneca, Pfizer / BioNTech and Novavax, have nonetheless expressed confidence in their ability to create a new vaccine against Omicron. Russia has also announced that it is working on a version of its Sputnik V specifically targeting this variant.

Overwhelmed by an outbreak of infections, Germany put on the mat Tuesday compulsory vaccination, which will be the subject of a law submitted to Parliament before the end of the year.

“Too many people have not been vaccinated,” future Chancellor Olaf Scholz told Bild TV.

In the UK, wearing a mask in transport and shops became mandatory again on Tuesday and all arriving travelers must take a PCR test and self-isolate until the result.

No deaths linked to the Omicron variant

France reported its first case of the Omicron variant on Tuesday, on Reunion Island, in the Indian Ocean, and now recommends vaccination for 5-11 eleven year olds at risk of a severe form of Covid.

Two cases of coronavirus due to Omicron have also been recorded in Switzerland.

Never has a variant of Covid-19 caused so much concern since the emergence of Delta, currently dominant and already very contagious.

The WHO considers "high" the "probability that Omicron spreads globally", even if many unknowns remain: contagiousness, effectiveness of existing vaccines, severity of symptoms.

But to date, no deaths associated with Omicron have been reported.

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Covid-19 in Brazil: Two cases of the Omicron variant detected, the first in Latin America

  • Covid 19

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  • Coronavirus

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