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 Japan and Hong Kong said they would expand travel curbs and Malaysia
temporarily banned travellers from countries deemed at risk. Japan,
which had already barred all new foreign entrants, reported its
second case of the new variant on Wednesday.
Other countries braced for more cases: Australia said at least two
people visited several locations in Sydney while likely infectious
and Denmark said an infected person had taken part in a large
concert.
The World Health Organization (WHO) said "blanket travel bans will
not prevent the international spread, and they place a heavy burden
on lives and livelihoods", while advising those unwell, at risk or
60 years or over and unvaccinated to postpone travel.
Investors remained on edge on Wednesday, even as financial markets
ame off lows plumbed a day earlier following remarks by the CEO of
Moderna that raised questions about the efficacy of COVID-19
vaccines against Omicron.
Global health officials have since offered reassurances and
reiterated calls for people to get vaccinated.
"Our best form of defence still remains our vaccines," British
Health Secretary Sajid Javid told Sky News.
"It's possible of course, it's possible that it might be less
effective. We just don't know for sure yet. But it's also very
likely that it will remain effective against serious disease," he
said.
European Medicines Agency Executive Director Emer Cooke earlier said
that laboratory analyses should indicate over the next couple of
weeks whether the blood of vaccinated people has sufficient
antibodies to neutralise the new variant.
The European Union brought forward the start of its vaccine rollout
for five-to-11-year-old children by a week to Dec 13.
BioNTech's CEO said the vaccine it makes in a partnership with
Pfizer would likely offer strong protection against severe disease
from Omicron.
Britain and the United States have both expanded their booster
programmes in response to the new variant.
First reported in southern Africa a week ago, Omicron has
highlighted the disparity between massive vaccination pushes in rich
nations and sparse inoculation in the developing world.
It has spread to more than a dozen countries, with Nigeria among the
latest to report cases of the variant. Saudi Arabia confirmed its
first case coming from a north African country.
Some 56 countries were reportedly implementing travel measures to
guard against Omicron as of Nov. 28, the WHO said.
WHO head Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said he's concerned that several
member states were "introducing blunt, blanket measures", which
"will only worsen inequities".
(GRAPHIC: OMICRON VARIANT MAP -
https://graphics.reuters.com/USA-VARIANT/zdvxonlxxpx/Omicron.jpg)
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BORDER CONTROLS
The United States is moving to require that all air travellers
entering the country show a negative COVID-19 test performed within
one day of departure, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
(CDC) said late on Tuesday.
Currently, vaccinated international travellers can present a
negative result obtained within three days from their point of
departure. The new one-day testing requirement would apply to U.S.
citizens as well as foreign nationals.
The administration is also considering whether to require travellers
to get another test within three to five days after arrival,
officials said.
The CDC lists about 80 foreign destinations as having "Level Four",
its highest level of COVID-19 transmission, and discourages
Americans from travelling to those destinations.
In Asia, Japan said it would expand its entry ban to foreigners with
resident status from 10 African countries.
Hong Kong will expand its entry ban for non-residents to three more
countries, Japan, Portugal and Sweden, from Friday.
South Korean Interior and Safety Minister Jeon Hae-cheol called for
tighter virus prevention measures to head off Omicron, after
suspected cases entered from Nigeria. The country has not detected
any confirmed cases of Omicron so far.
Malaysia has temporarily banned travellers from countries that
reported Omicron cases.
Global airlines are preparing for fresh volatility, analysts said.
Japanese airlines ANA and JAL said they were suspending new
reservations for international flights to the country until the end
of December.
"It feels a little bit like we are back to where we were a year ago
and that's not a great prospect for the industry and beyond," Deidre
Fulton, a partner at consultancy MIDAS Aviation, said at an industry
webinar.
(Reporting by David Shepardson in Washington, Sakura Murakami and
Elaine Lies in Tokyo, Reju Jose and Jamie Freed in Sydney, and
Reuters bureaus; Writing by Himani Sarkar and Philippa Fletcher;
Editing by Shri Navratnam, William Maclean)
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