South Africa

Ljubljana – The Health Ministry has issued guidelines on testing for persons who receive mandatory quarantine orders following their return to Slovenia from areas and countries with the new coronavirus variant Omicron – currently South Africa, Botswana, Eswatini, Lesotho, Namibia and Zimbabwe.

Omicron: 10 Bulgarian Citizens took off from an Airport in South Africa

So far, the tests for coronavirus of all passengers, who were evacuated today with a flight of the Romanian airline TAROM from South Africa, are negative, the head of the Emergency Situations Department Raed Arafat was quoted as saying by AFP.

Omicron is a new variant of the coronavirus that could restart the pandemic as it was in the beginning. This will happen if the risk is not managed and no action is taken. We need to manage risk and act as a community. The head of the laboratory for brain infections in Bern, Dr. Asparuh Iliev, the director of the Institute of Molecular Biology at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, Prof.

Bulgarian Experts: Omicron could Restart the Pandemic

Bulgarians have contacted our embassy in the Republic of South Africa with a request for assistance in their return to Bulgaria. They were blocked due to travel restrictions related to the new version of the COVID-19 Omicron. The flights of the compatriots to the home were canceled. Tonight, 10 Bulgarian citizens took off from the airport in Johannesburg.

Namely, as Novosti writes, the medical part of the Crisis Staff will request quarantine to be introduced for passengers from all countries where the omicron strain has been confirmed. But, since omicron is registered in many European countries, it is not certain that such a decision will be made.

As stated, this strain is likely to spread around the world, and a larger increase in the number of infected could have severe consequences in some areas.
Although it is not yet known to what extent omicron is contagious for those who have been vaccinated and recovered from COVID-19, the WHO recommends accelerated vaccination of risk groups.

Fatigue is one of the main symptoms of the new variant of the coronavirus - Omicron. This is explained by the President of the South African Medical Association Angelique Coetzee, writes Sky News.

BioNTech has begun work on a vaccine specifically for the new variant of the coronavirus Omicron, which was first identified in South Africa.

The development of an adapted vaccine is part of the standard procedure.

The first steps for a possible new vaccine are carried out in parallel with the assessment of whether one will be needed after the advent of Omicron.

Just to recall, South Africa reported to the WHO that a new strain of coronavirus has been identified, which experts assumed could be the worst so far. An emergency session of the WHO was convened, which finally announced today the predictions about the consequences that this strain could have on the previous pandemic.