Omicron covid variant sparks further travel bans and restrictions

Many crucial aspects about the omicron variant remain unknown, including whether it can evade vaccines or make people sicker than earlier forms of the virus. But the variant has caused scientists to worry that a long-anticipated scenario could be playing out — with a more transmissible form of the virus emerging from a part of the world with scant vaccine coverage.

“I haven’t been one to panic about new variants, but this one looks like it might be the perfect storm,” said Michael Worobey, an expert on viral epidemics from the University of Arizona.

For now, omicron — designated Friday by the World Health Organization as a variant of concern — is proving its transmissibility foremost in South Africa’s populous Gauteng province around Johannesburg, where it is outpacing delta. For months, delta has been the world’s predominant variant, and even delta is far more infectious than earlier versions of the coronavirus.

Omicron’s discovery has caused dread in part because the world is struggling to contend even with delta. Europe is facing a severe late autumn wave of cases, with deaths rising as well, sending some countries back into lockdowns. Some European Union nations have increasingly been targeting the unvaccinated, barring them from restaurants and even workplaces, and governments have stressed that near-complete inoculation is the best way to reduce the spread. The countries with the top vaccination rates in Europe have avoided the dire waves seen elsewhere across the continent.

“Please get vaccinated as soon as possible, if not done yet,” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said Friday, adding that Europe was taking the new variant “very seriously.”

Earlier in the pandemic, when other variants were discovered — including delta — countries also responded with travel bans. But the pandemic has proved that travel bans often fail to keep highly infectious variants out, as the variant often arrives in a country before a ban is announced, and even then can spread via returning citizens, and travelers entering via third countries.

Europe’s center for disease control said Friday that the likelihood omicron would spread across Europe was “high.” It labeled the variant, which is characterized by 30 changes, as the “most divergent” that has been detected in significant number so far.

Vaccine makers say they are racing to understand how well their vaccines can counter omicron; such a picture is expected to emerge within two weeks, said Pfizer and BioNTech.

Omicron was first detected in a part of the world where vaccination rates lag well behind the global average, largely because of lack of availability. Among the eight countries that have been targeted with travel restrictions, none has vaccinated even one-third of its population — and in Malawi, the inoculation rate is in the single digits.

Joel Achenbach, in Washington, and Lesley Wroughton, in Capetown, South Africa, contributed to this report.