U.S. & U.K. Announce Travel Ban Due to New COVID Variant Omicron

The United States, the European Union and the UK are putting travel restrictions in place for visitors from southern Africa upon the discovery of a new COVID variant, being called Omicron, via BBC.

A senior administration official said that the restrictions will apply to South Africa, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Namibia, Lesotho, Eswatini, Mozambique, and Malawi, and are being “implemented out of an abundance of caution in light of a new Covid-19 variant circulating in Southern Africa.”

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The World Health Organization named the variant a “variant of concern” using the Greek letter omicron on Friday (November 26), previously referred to as lineage B.1.1.529.

“Omicron, B.1.1.529, is named as a variant of concern because it has some concerning properties. This variant has a large number of mutations, and some of these mutations have some worrying characteristics,” said WHO’s Maria Van Kerkhove.

The number of omicron cases “appears to be increasing” in almost all of South Africa’s provinces, the WHO also reported.

The organization only labels COVID strains as variants of concern when they’re more transmissible, more virulent or more capable of evading public health measures including vaccines and therapeutics, CNBC reported.