In response to the variant's discovery in southern Africa, the United States, Canada, Russia and a host of other countries joined the European Union in restricting travel for visitors from that region, where the variant brought on a fresh surge of infections. It could take weeks to know if current vaccines are less effective against it.
That means people who contracted COVID-19 and recovered could be subject to catching it again. But early evidence suggests it carries an increased risk of reinfection compared with other highly transmissible variants, the WHO said. Omicron's actual risks are not understood. In announcing new travel restrictions, he told reporters, “I’ve decided that we’re going to be cautious.” President Joe Biden said of the new variant, only a day after celebrating the resumption of Thanksgiving gatherings for millions of American families and the sense that normal life was coming back at least for the vaccinated. BRUSSELS (AP) - Nearly two years into the COVID-19 pandemic, the world raced Friday to contain a new coronavirus variant potentially more dangerous than the one that has fueled relentless waves of infection on nearly every continent.Ī World Health Organization panel named the variant “omicron” and classified it as a highly transmissible virus of concern, the same category that includes the predominant delta variant, which is still a scourge driving higher cases of sickness and death in Europe and parts of the United States.