Red alert as more countries detect super-mutant Omicron Coronavirus variant

After detecting two cases of the super-mutant Omicron Coronavirus variant in the UK, European countries have been put on red alert as the new variant has already been detected in Belgium, Botswana, Hong Kong, The Netherlands, Czech Republic, and Israel, sparking global concern and a rush to ban travel.

According to a report on Sunday by the World Health Organisation (WHO), Omicron, the new potentially more contagious variant of the coronavirus has been reported in more European countries after the UK, just days after being identified in South Africa.

Many countries have already imposed travel restrictions on flights from southern Africa amid fears that Omicron variant has the potential to be more resistant to the protection offered by available vaccines.

But experts say such restrictions may be too late to stop Omicron from circulating globally

Countries are now on high alert even as the coronavirus pandemic has claimed the lives of more than five million people around the world.

In Czech Republic, the spokesperson of a regional hospital in the northern Czech city of Liberec confirmed the new omicron strain in a woman.

Read also: WHO names new Covid-19 Variant ‘Omicron’

“My colleagues from the department of genetics and molecular diagnostics confirmed the strain with 90-per cent probability after a sequence analysis.”

Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis has said the woman visited Namibia and flew back to the Czech Republic via South Africa and Dubai. The woman was vaccinated and had mild symptoms of the disease, Babis added.

Join the conversation

Opinions

Support Ripples Nigeria, hold up solutions journalism

Balanced, fearless journalism driven by data comes at huge financial costs.

As a media platform, we hold leadership accountable and will not trade the right to press freedom and free speech for a piece of cake.

If you like what we do, and are ready to uphold solutions journalism, kindly donate to the Ripples Nigeria cause.

Your support would help to ensure that citizens and institutions continue to have free access to credible and reliable information for societal development.

Donate Now