Nov 29, 2021: G7 health ministers were due to hold an emergency meeting on Monday on the new Omicron CoVID-19 strain that is spreading around the world and are forcing borders to be closed as experts try to figure what the variant means for ending the pandemic.

The meeting was convened by the head of the G7, the United Kingdom, which is one of the countries that is one of the countries registering cases of the new strain.

Omicron, first discovered in South Africa, represents a new challenge to global efforts to fight the pandemic. Many countries have already re-imposed sanctions which they hoped would be a thing of the past.

According to Ursula von der Leyen, the European Commission chief, “We know we are now in a race against time. Vaccine manufacturers needed two to three weeks to get a full picture of the quality of the mutations”,

A long list of countries has already imposed travel bans on South Africa, including Qatar, the main travel hub, as well as the United States, Britain, Indonesia, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the Netherlands.

Angola became the first South African country to suspend all flights from its regional neighbors Mozambique, Namibia and South Africa. South African President Cyril Ramaphosa on Sunday called on countries to lift travel bans “before further damage to economies”. Malawian President Lazarus Chakwere has accused Western countries of “afrophobia” in closing their borders.

The head of the World Health Organization in Africa also urged countries to follow science instead of banning flights to overcome the threat from the new variant.

Dutch health officials say they have identified at least 13 cases of omicron out of 61 quarantine passengers who tested positive for the corona virus after returning from South Africa. The border police announced on Sunday that they had arrested a couple on a plane at Schiphol Airport after they escaped from a hotel where passengers were being quarantined.

Despite the new threat, tens of thousands of people rallied in Austria to protest the government’s introduction of mandatory vaccinations – the first EU country to do so. Chancellor Alexander Schallenberg called it a “minor intervention” compared to the alternative to the country with the lowest vaccination rates in Western Europe.

With several European countries, including Germany and France, already reintroducing sanctions to combat the rise in infection, Swiss voters strongly supported the proposed covid pass law in Sunday’s referendum.

In the UK, Health Secretary Sajid Javed said the new covid rules would come into force on Tuesday, including the wearing of masks at shops and public transport in England and strict restrictions on travelers from abroad.

As scientists try to determine the level of risk associated with the new strain, a South African doctor said dozens of her patients who were suspected of having omicron variant, experienced only mild symptoms such as fatigue.

Senior US government scientist Anthony Fauci said he “continues to believe that existing vaccines are likely to provide a degree of protection against severe cases of Covid”, during a briefing on the new variant with President Joe Biden on Sunday.

Israel announced some of the strictest curbs, closing the borders to all foreigners — just four weeks after re-opening to tourists following a prolonged Covid-driven closure.

Scientists in South Africa said they had last week detected the new variant with a far greater number of mutations than in the cases of earlier strains like Beta or Delta — the latter of which dented the global recovery and sent millions worldwide back into lockdown.

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