London calls emergency meeting of G7 health ministers for tomorrow

• Omicron variant, Hope: "Guard high, but let's not rush the judgments"

• South Africa Doctors: "Omicron gives mild symptoms".

  Nothing close but we think of the mandatory vaccine

• Covid, Omicron variant.

  WHO: it is not clear whether more transmissible and more serious

• Omicron variant, swabs to 133 passengers on the flight of the first Italian infected

• Omicron, von der Leyen: "It's a race against time"

• Omicron variant, Lamorgese: "Third doses and even more important masks"

• Omicron variant, Ciccozzi: we are altruistic and we go to vaccinate the Africans

• Locatelli: "With Omicron faster infections, we will understand if it eludes vaccines"

• The patient positive for the Omicron variant has landed in Rome.

  Lazio ready for checks

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November 28, 2021 Britain has called an urgent meeting of G7 health ministers for tomorrow to discuss developments in the pandemic related to the Omicron variant. This was announced by the London government in a note.

The whole world fears the advance of the new variant, which in a few days since its discovery in South Africa has already crossed the borders of several continents, from Europe to Oceania. "It is a race against time" to understand more and adopt the right countermeasures, underlines the president of the EU Commission, Ursula von der Leyen.

The specter of yet another acceleration of the pandemic is bringing back restrictions and armored borders that were hoped to have been archived after 2020. As in

and

which closed the borders on the day

the semi-lockdown came into effect

in the

. South Africa, on the other hand, does not close, but is evaluating the hypothesis of a vaccination obligation.

On the Omicron, scientists work to understand how it developed, how dangerous it is and how far it can bypass current vaccines. For

, who were the first to study it, the symptoms of the infected are "mild", but its numerous mutations (perhaps 10, compared to 2 in the delta and 3 in the beta) make it a hybrid never seen before. , and therefore worthy of the utmost attention.

"It will take two to three weeks to get a complete view," explained

, renewing the challenge to accelerate with "vaccines and third dose".

In the meantime, governments are committed not to undermine the efforts conducted so far. Israel, pioneering the response to Covid, having first immunized the entire population, closed its borders. The

for two weeks: a measure is not insignificant, considering the tourist potential of the North African country. In Europe

has the longest red list of southern African countries from which travel is prohibited, but in London they want to strengthen their defenses. In the Kingdom, three cases of Omicron have been recorded and at stake is the possibility of "enjoying Christmas with families", underlined the Minister of Health, Sajid Javid, and on Tuesday the obligation to wear a mask in shops and transport will take effect. , and the obligation of monoclonal tests for all arrivals, with quarantine until the result.

In the old continent the new variant continues to grow in more and more countries, and all the positives are people arriving from southern Africa. The

has joined

,

,

and

, there is a suspected case in

. Then there is Holland, where there are almost certainly several dozen cases of Omicron (at least 13 confirmed) among passengers on two return flights from South Africa. The semi-confinement has just started in Holland, with the closure of restaurants, bars, non-essential shops, cinemas from 5 to 5: a crackdown decided before the arrival of Omicron, but which perhaps can prevent its spreading.

The new variant, thanks to intercontinental flights, is able to travel thousands of kilometers. So from Africa it reached Australia and Asia, with the first cases in

. In the

"It will inevitably hit", underlined virologist Anthony Fauci, pointing the finger at a stagnant vaccination rate that risks leading to a "fifth wave". In South Africa, since Omicron was detected, the positivity rate has jumped to 9.2%. There is still no data on how many infections are related to the variant, but international experts believe that with such low vaccinations (24% of the population) the new strain will be able to do more damage than in countries where the third doses have already started.

In 

, however, there was no new tight wait to contain the virus. Speaking to the nation, President Cyril Ramaphosa only announced the establishment of a working group to evaluate the possibility of a vaccination obligation "for specific activities and places". And he appealed to the world to eliminate the "punitive" ban on flights. An appeal relaunched today also by the WHO. 

"It is still unclear whether it is more transmissible (meaning it spreads more easily from person to person) than other variants, including the Delta." This explains a note from the World Health Organization which confirms the increase in cases in South Africa compared to the variant of Covd-19. And "epidemiological studies are underway to understand whether this is due to Omicron or other factors". "Preliminary data suggest that there are increasing hospitalization rates in South Africa, but this could be due to the increase in the overall number of people infected, rather than a specific infection due to the Omicron variant. At the moment - specifies the WHO. - there is no information to suggest that the symptoms associated with Omicron are different from those of other variants ".

In addition, WHO reiterates that "understanding the severity level of the Omicron variant will take days to several weeks" and that "all Covid variants, including the Delta variant which is dominant around the world, can cause serious infections or death, especially for the most vulnerable people, and therefore prevention is always fundamental ".

The WHO also states that it "stands with

and asks that borders remain open".

"As countries impose flight bans on southern African nations due to concerns about the new variant of Covid Omicron, WHO urges countries to follow scientific and health regulations," WHO stresses.