WHO declares new COVID-19 strain ‘variant of concern,’ US restricts travel

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Concerns are growing over a new variant of the COVID-19 virus in South Africa.

The World Health Organization announced Friday that it is monitoring a new variant and has declared it a “variant of concern.” The variant, labeled B.1.1.529, or “omicron,” has been detected in small numbers in South Africa. The strain has inspired several officials, including those in the United States, to begin restricting travel to the region.

“We don’t know very much about this yet. What we do know is that this variant has a large number of mutations. And the concern is that when you have so many mutations, it can have an impact on how the virus behaves,” Dr. Maria Van Kerkhove, WHO’s technical lead on COVID-19, said in a Thursday Q&A streamed to WHO’s social media platforms.

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Van Kerkhove says that several studies are underway, and that those involving the omicron variant will take days and weeks to complete.

The new variant reportedly has an “unusual constellation of mutations,” Professor Tulio de Oliveira, the director of the Centre for Epidemic Response and Innovation in South Africa, told the BBC. In a media briefing, de Oliveira said that this particular variant had 50 mutations overall, with 30 in the spike protein, an area that the vaccine targets explicitly. This doesn’t necessarily mean that the variant will be worse, but officials believe it needs additional attention.

The virus variant has caused some lawmakers to take immediate action to restrict travel in several countries. The Biden administration announced on Friday that the U.S. will restrict travel to South Africa and seven other African nations based on advice provided by Dr. Anthony Fauci and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, reports CNN.

U.K. Secretary of State for Health and Social Care Sajid Javid tweeted on Thursday that travel to six African countries has been temporarily banned.

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WHO advised against countries hastily implementing travel restrictions linked to the new variant.

“At this point, implementing travel measures is being cautioned against,” WHO spokesman Christian Lindmeier told a U.N. briefing in Geneva. “The WHO recommends that countries continue to apply a risk-based and scientific approach when implementing travel measures.”

Lindmeier says that it will take several weeks to determine the variant’s transmissibility and the vaccine’s effectiveness against it.

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