The discovery of a complex new COVID-19 variant with dozens of mutations, detected in five countries and igniting a rapid surge of cases in South Africa, has triggered a wave of travel bans and border controls in many countries worldwide.
Scientists in South Africa announced on Thursday that they had identified the worrisome new variant, which might be more transmissible than others. Within hours, Britain announced a ban on flights from South Africa and several other African countries.
On Friday, the World Health Organization designated it a “variant of concern,” the fifth variant to be given the designation. The WHO said in a statement that it had assigned the B.1.1.529 variant the Greek letter Omicron.
Many other governments issued their own travel restrictions on Friday, causing a drop in global stocks and oil prices as investors fretted about the risk of broader economic damage.
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Some of the earliest cases of the new variant were detected in Hong Kong and Israel among travellers from Southern African countries. But on Friday, a case of the variant was detected in Belgium with no known connection to Southern Africa, suggesting that it could already be circulating widely in many countries. The Belgian case involved a traveller from Egypt, at the opposite end of the African continent.
South Africa has the largest number of confirmed cases of the variant, about 100 so far, and neighbouring Botswana has detected four additional cases, including one of the first known. The new variant is believed to be the likely cause of a recent dramatic increase in cases in South Africa’s Gauteng province, a populous region where Johannesburg and Pretoria are located.
There are concerns that the variant is likely to have emerged in an African country with a low vaccination rate, after nearly a year of global vaccine shortages and lengthy delays in sharing vaccines with low-income countries. Only 7 per cent of Africans have been fully vaccinated so far. Even in middle-income South Africa, only 24 per cent of people have been fully vaccinated, largely because the country was unable to get a significant supply of vaccines until several months after wealthier countries had begun vaccinating.
Omicron has about 50 mutations, including more than 30 in the spike protein, which coronaviruses use to enter human cells. This is about twice the number of such mutations in the Delta variant.
“The epidemiological picture suggests that this variant may be more transmissible, and several mutations are consistent with enhanced transmissibility,” said Sharon Peacock, a professor of public health and microbiology at the University of Cambridge.
Some of the variant’s mutations have also been associated with immune evasion, suggesting that existing vaccines may be less effective against it. But the evidence is not yet clear. Studies are being conducted in South Africa, but will take several weeks to complete.
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