The World is on the Alert after Discovery of a New Variant of COVID-19 – “Omicron”

A new, potentially more contagious variant of the coronavirus is already circulating in Europe. A number of countries have banned the entry of passengers from southern Africa, where the Omicron variant was found, in the past two days.

Britain, Germany, Italy and the Czech Republic yesterday identified the first cases of people infected with this variant and announced new measures to control the infection.

Fears of the new variant and the potential for it to be more resistant to the protection provided by vaccines are raising concerns that the pandemic and related lockdowns and restrictions may last longer than expected. Nearly two years after the start of the pandemic, which claimed the lives of more than 5 million people globally, countries around the world are on the alert. On Friday, a number of countries banned flights from South Africa and neighboring countries to allow time to assess whether this option is more contagious than the currently dominant Delta option.

The Republic of South Africa regretted the closure of the borders of dozens of countries for its citizens and travelers and said that the discovery of the new version of Omicron coronavirus thanks to the work of South African scientists should not be "punished" in this way. "This latest series of travel bans is actually punishing South Africa for its progress in genomic sequencing and its ability to discover new variants more quickly. Brilliant scientific work must be met with applause, not punishment," the government said in communiqué, quoted by AFP.

Israel became the first country in the world to announce the complete closure of its borders to foreigners for 14 days. In addition to the travel ban, Israel's Internal Security Service, Shin Bet, will put in place...

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