The U.K. confirmed the omicron COVID-19 variant in people with a connection to travel in southern Africa, as Germany and Italy identified suspected cases in recent travelers.
The U.K.’s announcement of two cases came as officials across Europe braced for the new variant to surface, days after it was first identified. Belgium, Hong Kong and Israel have confirmed instances of the new strain.
The cases confirmed in the U.K. and elsewhere have been seen in people who landed in Europe before travel bans kicked in late this week.
The U.K. cases “are linked, and there is a link with travel to southern Africa,” U.K. Health Minister Sajid Javid said. The individuals and their families are self-isolating now.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced a series of measures to tackle the variant, including a requirement for travelers to test and isolate upon arrival, and a tightening of face mask rules.
U.K. officials leaned on the country’s strong vaccination program as its main defense against the new variant, and said the booster program would be accelerated.
“We are not going to stop people traveling, I want to stress that,” Johnson said.
Bavaria’s health minister announced suspected variant cases in two people who flew into Munich on Nov. 24 from South Africa. Earlier, the Hessian Ministry for Social Affairs said a person who arrived in Frankfurt from South Africa was suspected of having the variant.
Results of complete sequencing of virus samples from the travelers haven’t been finalized in Germany.
Health officials in the Netherlands said Saturday that 61 people — or about one in 10 — tested positive for COVID-19 after flights from Johannesburg and Cape Town to Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport on Friday.
Dutch authorities will research whether the cases are from the new strain.
The news raised eyebrows since travelers from South Africa are required to present negative COVID-19 tests before boarding flights to Europe.
Elsewhere in Europe, a traveler on a flight to the Czech Republic from Namibia is suspected to have been infected with the new variant, CTK news service reported. Italy’s Health Ministry identified a possible case in a traveler returning from Mozambique.
In the U.S., Biden administration health adviser Anthony Fauci said Saturday he wouldn’t be surprised if the variant is already in the country but is yet to be detected. “When you have a virus like this, it almost inevitability it is going to go, essentially, all over,” Fauci said on NBC.
The emergence of the omicron variant comes as much of Europe is already engulfed in a fourth wave of coronavirus cases — one that’s been driven by the highly infectious delta strain.
Hospitals are stretched to capacity in some areas, countries like Austria are back in lockdown or have imposed curfews, and vaccine campaigns have in many instances fallen short of levels thought to create herd immunity.
Germany is “developing a new, precise way of dealing with the current challenges” of coronavirus and the omicron strain, incoming Chancellor Olaf Scholz tweeted on Saturday, vowing to “do whatever it takes.”
The World Health Organization on Friday declared the omicron strain a “variant of concern.” Scientists say the variant carries a high number of mutations in its spike protein, which plays a key role in the virus’s entry into cells in the body. Labs in Europe, the U.S. and Africa are preparing for tests to see how the new variant is likely to behave in people who’ve been vaccinated or previously infected.
The discovery of the omicron strain has drastically shifted South Africa’s COVID profile after its third coronavirus wave, which peaked in July, dwindled to only a few hundred cases a day earlier this month. By Friday, 2,828 cases were reported and the positive tests rose to 9.2% from 6.5%.
Wastewater analysis shows that COVID-19 infections are surging in two major metropolitan areas, the South African Medical Research Council said.
Many travelers rushed to catch remaining flights to Europe and beyond before travel bans on several southern African countries were imposed on Friday.
Among those were more than a dozen professional golfers, mostly British and Irish, who’d been playing a tournament in Johannesburg. Two visiting Welsh rugby teams also scrambled for flights.
Worries that the new strain could be particularly transmissible were stirred by news from Hong Kong that a person in quarantine may have been infected by a traveler from South Africa across a hotel corridor.
