Over the past few days, Omicron has been showing up everywhere from the United Kingdom to the Czech Republic.
With 32 mutations from the original Alpha strain of coronavirus, Omicron remains little understood. It may be more transmissible and more resilient against current vaccines, as Dr. Anthony Fauci said at a White House press conference on Wednesday, but more data is still needed.
What has become clear is that it is already appearing in significant numbers in Europe, which was recently designated by the WHO as the global epicenter of COVID thanks to an ongoing surge of Delta. Omicron is also prompting a return on the continent to face coverings, quarantines, mandates for pre- and post-arrival COVID tests regardless of vaccination status, nighttime curfews and the imposition or extension of lockdowns.And on Wednesday, von der Leyen made headlines by saying it was time to consider mandating vaccines across the entire EU, a move already planned for Austria and being considered by Germany. It’s the uncertainty about the virus that is prompting moves that sometimes appear extreme, even panicked, which is understandable, said Macip. “We’re in pandemic fatigue now,” he noted. “Every new drop feels like a tsunami.” The masks that were ditched in July, when U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced “Freedom Day,” are being slapped back on by order of his government in shops, elementary schools and on mass transit. To date, 42 of Europe’s Omicron cases have been in Britain. Nearly abandoned in favor of cheaper antigen tests, next-day PCR tests that were available for 35 pounds last week are now going for three to four times that amount since Johnson mandated that all international arrivals be required to take the more analytic polymerase chain reaction tests, that amplify small strands of DNA. Those who undergo testing are required to self-isolate until notified they are negative — or risk a 1000-pound fine.Spain is banning unvaccinated Brits from entering, and Portugal, Norway and France are now mandating PCR tests for travelers arriving from outside the EU; that minority of Frenchmen who have not obtained a vaccine pass could previously still enter shops, restaurants and museums if they showed a negative test from the previous 72 hours; now they’ll have to get a fresh one daily at about $90 a pop, and after today’s announcement about an Omicron outbreak in Oslo, the Norwegian government is recommending that those in the capital work from home. Many European countries have halted flights from countries at Africa’s southern tip; Germany only allows arrivals of planes from those countries that carry exclusively German citizens, but those passengers now must self-isolate for two weeks once they land. Switzerland just announced 10-day quarantines even for those coming from parts of Europe, including Belgium, the Netherlands, the Czech Republic and the U.K. — the first European countries where the new mutant variant was found. In Spain, where three cases of Omicron have been detected, at least two of them in fully vaccinated travelers and one who had not visited Africa, vaccine passports are being rolled out in Barcelona and Madrid. In the Netherlands, normally bustling streets are dead, with bars and eateries are now forced to shutter even earlier — at 5 pm —and soccer games will once again be played to empty stadiums. Slovakia, where Omicron has not yet been discovered, is so overwhelmed by Delta alone that it declared a state of emergency and locked down for two weeks, while Austria extended its nationwide lockdown for another 20 days; now even essential stores must close by 7 p.m. Dr. Daniel Lopez-Acuña, former director of Health Action in Crisis at the WHO, points out that as Omicron circulates, along with still dominant Delta, vaccination remains key to fending off both, but so do the non-pharmacological measures that were recently dropped across much of Europe. “This variant will be stopped not by giving third vaccines alone or by stopping flights from South Africa, but by restricting the social interactions of unprotected people,” as well as increased contact tracing, genomic sequencing, social distancing, curtailing nightlife and ventilating indoor spaces as well as using face masks — even outdoors, in places with high infection rates. Most Western European countries may not require full lockdowns, he thinks, but even in Spain, where rates again are accelerating — with 100,000 new cases of Delta over the past two weeks — “We need to seriously consider reintroducing restrictions and not think this will be a Christmas season like we had before the pandemic,” Lopez-Acuña said. A passenger from a flight from South Africa gets tested for the coronavirus at the Amsterdam Schiphol airport in the Netherlands. Health experts underscore the WHO’s recent urging of countries to increase PCR testing, particularly of travelers. “It’s impossible to prevent the spread of a variant, once it’s out,” said Macip, “but now is the time for countries to force incoming travelers to take a PCR test as soon as they land,” and to self-isolate until their results are in. Both Macip and Lopez-Acuña stress the need not to panic, but to prepare for possible worst-case scenarios. The crucial information that they are awaiting is how effective current vaccines will be against Omicron. If the new variant is able to escape the efficacy of today’s inoculations, “We will have to produce new formulations of vaccines that also cover Omicron — and this implies revaccinating everyone,” said Lopez-Acuña. “That is a major task, and it will take a few months to develop new vaccines. In the meantime, there will be vulnerabilities, which is why the first mission is to restrict and protect social interactions.” Another key bit of information is how Omicron performs outside of the lab and in the real world. “Omicron definitely looks bad on paper,” said Macip, “but so did Beta.” And unlike the Alpha and Delta variants, Beta never took off and slammed the world in the same way. Whatever happens, he said, “It's not the end of the world. The backbones of vaccines are already there, the tests have been done. So perhaps we will just have to switch to a new vaccine and carry on. We are not back at square one.” Explore how the Delta variant correlates with the national political landscape in this 3D experience from the Yahoo Immersive Team.
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