Omicron – The New COVID-19 Variant in the UK, Health Agencies Warn High Infection Risk

1. OMICRON – THE NEW COVID-19 VARIANT IN THE UK, HEALTH AGENCIES WARN HIGH INFECTION RISK UK, Belgium, and the Netherlands reported cases of the new variant of coronavirus – Omicron. The global health agency – WHO, World Health Organization warned that Omicron, the new variant has a high risk of infection in the world. Head of WHO, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus renewed the call for getting vaccines to poorer nations in the world. He added that this variant could lead to severe health consequences in different parts of the world. He said that COVID-19 is not done with us yet; we need to live carefully and follow safety guidelines. Omicron was detected in South Africa at the

2. beginning of the month. The country has been praised for the prompt reporting of the Omicron variant. This variant has an unprecedented number of spike mutations. WHO added that these new mutations could affect the trajectory of this pandemic. Further, he said that the new coronavirus variant shows that we are not done with COVID-19 and it is an emergency reminder. However, there were no deaths reported due to the Omicron variant. Many other countries reported cases of the new variant Omicron in the world, including: Canada UK Portugal Netherlands Belgium Cyril Ramaphosa, the South Africa President criticized the decision of travel ban to the Southern African countries by the UK, the US and EU. Japan also banned travel for foreign visitors. Similarly, Australia is planning to ban travel from other countries. BBC reported that Israel has also banned foreigners in the country. The UK and US are focusing on the booster jabs to stop the new wave of coronavirus in the countries. The US President Biden said that the US would not anticipate any travel restrictions or lockdowns this time, BBC reported. This pandemic caused more than 250 million cases in the world and more than five million deaths, the data from John Hopkins University says. The UK has reported the third case of the Omicron variant of COVID-19, Health Security Agency said. The government says that people should wear a mask in shops and on public transport to stay protected from this new variant. This also applies to schools, universities, and colleges to wear face coverings. The Department of Health and Social Care said that there would be an urgent meeting of the G7 health ministers to discuss the Omicron, on Monday. Health

3. Secretary Sajid Javid said that the ministers acted swiftly and in the right way to the new Omicron variant. Ten countries of southern South Africa are now on the Red List of Travel of the UK. The chief of UKHSA said that people who were reported with Omicron variant linked with travel from South Africa. They are working on the variant to check the transmissibility and antibody response. For more visit UKSleepingPill