The ministers of health of the ‘big’ of the Earth will already meet today, in a G7 emergency call called by Great Britain to discuss the steps to be taken to immediately counter the spread of variante Omicron of the coronavirus which already worries the whole world, after the first cases sequenced outside the South Africa. World governments were reassured by the words of some experts and health authorities in the southernmost country of the African continent, according to which the symptoms of the new mutation would be “light”, but theWorld Health Organization (WHO) raises the alarm explaining that the new variant could have “serious consequences”. Meanwhile, other governments decide, despite protests by Pretoria, to prevent access to its territory from South Africa and other southern African countries. In Italy i mayors instead they ask the government to reintroduce restrictions come the obligation to wear a mask. While the The Guardian reports that in the UK scientists investigate hundreds of suspected cases, some referable to a period previous the South African discovery of the variant.
WHO: “Very high global risk”
“Given the mutations that can confer a potential transmission advantage for the virus, the probability of a potential further spread of Omicron globally is high – reads a WHO document sent to all member countries – Given these characteristics, there might be future spikes of Covid-19 which could have serious consequences, depending on a number of factors, including where they occur. The global risk overall relative to the new Omicron variant is evaluated as very high“. Furthermore, according to the experts of the UN agency, “the probability of a potential further spread of Omicron globally is high”, even if “to date no deaths related to the variant have been reported”.
Subsequently Sylvie Briand, director of the organization’s epidemic risk management department, speaking to France Info he pointed out that “we have defined it as worrying because all the teams of the whole world can retrieve the maximum information on this variant. It is important to have more information on this variant “. For the scholar, on the part of the WHO it was therefore “an alert so that there is more attention on this variant”. But it does not mean that greater contagiousness equates to greater danger: “Most fragile people are vaccinated in Europe – he explained – On the epidemiological curves we see very well that, even if there are many cases, the curve of deaths and hospitalizations remains much lower than we had seen in the 2020 wave. May a variant be more transmissible it does not mean that it will be more virulent ”.
As for the tools to combat these new variants, the director of the epidemic risks sector explained that “the new technologies to develop the new messenger RNA vaccines allow a faster preparation. From the moment we have the genetic sequence that needs to be used for the vaccine, we can shorten production times. It is very encouraging, it means that we are much more reactive than for other vaccines such as influenza, which takes about 6 months to mass produce the vaccines. Once we know the part of the antigen we want to put in the vaccine, we can produce it in large quantities ”.
Von der Leyen: “We need collective action”
The President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, invites countries to take collective action to stem the spread of the new variant, without steps forward and individual measures: “The spirit ofcollective action it is the only truly robust response to combat this pandemic and future ones. Alone collective, effective and immediate responses can work against viruses “, he said before addressing European governments and institutions, saying that” we cannot remain idle, in front of us we have urgent tasks and just as we are speaking the international community finds itself at face a new variant of Covid-19 “.
The measures: stop arrivals from southern Africa
Thus, the Japan he even decided to close the borders to all foreign visitors: “We have banned all entry of foreign citizens from all over the world from 30 November,” the prime minister told reporters, Fumio Kishida. And all Japanese returning from 9 Southern African countries where infections with the new variant have been identified will have to undergo “rigorous insulation measures risk-based “. There New Zeland did the same, allowing only New Zealand citizens to enter the country from South Africa, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Lesotho, Eswatini, Seychelles, Malawi e Mozambique. For them, however, a period of 14-day quarantine, announced the minister with responsibility for the management of Covid, Chris Hipkins. While theAustralia has decided not to reopen international borders to qualified workers and students, as foreseen from 1 December. This is “a necessary and temporary decision”, announced the prime minister Scott Morrison.
President of South Africa: “Deeply disappointed”
The South African president Cyril Ramaphosa it is said “Deeply disappointed” for the “unjustified” decision to close the borders to travelers and asked for the urgent lifting of the bans imposed. In his speech, he spoke of the lack of scientific evidence on which to base such a decision and of unfair discrimination towards the region of southern Africa. The closures, he warned, will not be effective against the spread of the variant: “The only thing that the bans will cause is a further damage to economies of the countries involved which will undermine their ability to respond to the pandemic “. Ramaphosa then appealed to the countries that have closed their borders asking them “to urgently return to the decision before further damage is done to our economies”.
South African experts are divided on the risks associated with the new variant. According to Salim Abdool Karim, a well-known South African epidemiologist who spoke at an online press conference by the Ministry of Health, the mutation risks causing a surge in coronavirus cases in South Africa that could triple infections every day. “I expect that we will exceed 10 thousand cases per day within the end of the week”. But the president of the South African medical order, Angelique Coetzee, claims that the alarm is “excessive” and the reaction “disproportionate”: “The patients I saw had mild symptoms and recovered. No one was hospitalized and there was no need foroxygen. This reaction in the world makes no sense, ”he added.