SARS-CoV-2 Delta variant

The increase in COVID-19 infections in Europe over the past two months is due to the Delta variant, but Omicron could worsen the situation, said Maria Van Kerkhove, head of the technical team at the World Health Organization's emergency department.

South African scientists have identified a new variant of the virus that causes COVID-19, and the World Health Organization gave it the spy fantastic name "omicron" within days, due to a series of mutations in its protein spikes, nanomechanical tentacles that connect and break into cells, scientific alarms have begun to sound off, writes Wired.

Germany unveiled strict curbs on the unvaccinated on Dec. 2 as alarm fanned worldwide over the Omicron variant, and Joe Biden announced America's winter battle plans against COVID-19 as signs of community transmission of the new strain began showing in the U.S.

The WHO issued stern warnings on Dec. 1 on the dangers of vaccination apathy and the European Union put mandatory jabs on the table as the United States registered its first case of the fast-spreading Omicron strain of the coronavirus.

The WHO said on Nov. 30 that those not fully vaccinated against COVID-19 who are also vulnerable to the disease, including over-60s, should put off travel to areas with community transmission.

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.

Most people hoped that over time - and given scientific progress, vaccines, and medicines that are being developed - the pandemic would be checked and become an endemic seasonal disease like the flu.

Yet, a series of factors and conditions, in Greece and around the world, dashed those hopes.

Nearly two years into the COVID-19 pandemic, the world is racing to contain a new coronavirus variant potentially more dangerous than the one that has fueled relentless waves of infection on nearly every continent.

Turkey, the United States, Brazil, Canada, and Saudi Arabia became the latest countries on Nov. 26 to restrict travel from southern Africa, where a new Covid strain labelled a "variant of concern" has been discovered in a potentially heavy blow to the world's efforts to end the coronavirus pandemic.

Vaccines reduce the transmission of the Delta variant to the coronavirus by only 40%, so people should continue to adhere to protection measures instead of falling into the trap of a deceptive sense of security.

This was announced by the Director General of the World Health Organization Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.