The omicron variant causes the closure of borders

Borders that are closing again and cases that are spreading little by little: the omicron variant, detected in South Africa, generates new limitations and fears throughout the world.

Meanwhile, the WHO takes the floor to warn about this variant and to prepare the ground for the global response against future pandemics.

Closed borders

Israel was last midnight the first country in the world to impose a strict border closure to shield itself from the omicron, of which there are already two confirmed cases in the country.

Along these lines, Japan today decided to close its borders again except for the return of its citizens and foreign residents, an “urgent” measure taken in response to the new omicron strain of which, for now, no infections have been detected in the country.

Japan thus opts for a new shield against the spread of the new variant that already affects Europe and other regions of the world, and only three weeks after the Asian country began to partially relax its border restrictions that had been in force for months due to the pandemic.

The Philippine authorities announced this Monday the suspension of the opening of their borders without quarantine to tourists vaccinated against COVID-19, a measure that was to take effect on December 1, due to the new omicron variant of the coronavirus.

Meanwhile, Australia on Monday delayed the partial opening of the borders to qualified workers and foreign students vaccinated from December 1 to 15 after detecting four cases of the new omicron variant of COVID-19.

On the European Union, the French Secretary of State for European Affairs, Clément Beaune, affirmed this Monday that the internal borders of the EU will not be closed despite the increase in epidemic pressure and the appearance of the new variant of the coronavirus identified in the south from Africa.

“Our weapon is the health certificate” that is already necessary to move from one country to another, said Beaune and regarding the external borders of the EU, he said that France is committed to “a coordinated device” with the other community partners.

African rejection

The president of Malawi, Lazarus Chakwera, joined the resounding criticisms of these days against the travel restrictions and bans imposed on southern Africa after the detection of the omicron variant and affirmed that measures against COVID must be based “on science , not in Afrophobia ”.

“We are all concerned about the new COVID variant and we owe to the South African scientists our gratitude for identifying it before anyone else,” Chakwera, who also serves as shift president of the Community for Development bloc of countries, said last night. Southern Africa (SADC).

Omicron stretches

Portugal confirmed today the detection of COVID cases of the omicron variant. There are thirteen soccer players from Belenenses, who play in the Portuguese First Division.

The South African footballer Cafu Phete, who belongs to this squad, returned to Portugal last Sunday, November 21, after playing two games with the national team.

Six other cases of omicron coronavirus have been identified in different areas of Scotland, while in England there are already three.

Australia confirmed this Monday two new infections, with which there are already four identified in the country and Austria has reported this Monday the first case of infection with the omicron variant in its territory, a person who had returned from a trip to South Africa and who does not have any symptoms of the disease.

In Asia, the Hong Kong health authorities reported a new case of the variant, with which there are already three in that territory.

WHO is acting

The global risk posed by the new omicron variant of the coronavirus is “very high,” the World Health Organization warned today in a technical report on this new strain of SARS-CoV-2.

Taking into account the high mutations of omicron, with the potential to be more resistant to immunization and more contagious, the risk that the variant will be transmitted worldwide is “high”, said the document, written this Sunday but made public today by WHO.

Faced with these risks, the WHO asks its member states to take certain priority actions, including “accelerating vaccination, especially among the population at risk that remains unvaccinated.”

In addition, the WHO today opened an extraordinary assembly in which the member countries will negotiate the possible signing of a treaty to prepare and respond to future pandemics, with the aim of not repeating the mistakes made during the current global health crisis.

For three days, the main health officials of the 192 member states will debate the text of the treaty, of which there is already a draft, according to diplomatic sources.

It is the second time in history that the WHO has held an extraordinary assembly, which according to the organization shows the urgency of reaching an international consensus.

For their part, the G7 Health Ministers, the most developed economies, meet this Monday from 12.30 GMT to analyze strategies against the omicron variant of the coronavirus. (I)