The Overseas Situation Report Friday 3 December 2021

by Mike Evans

The scientists in South Africa created a great public good in detecting what was happening in their country and in sharing it in the way they did and it underlines to me how important it is for us to fulfill our obligations to other parts of the world. That’s why European Union is the largest exporter of vaccines.”

– Winnie Byanyima, NAIDS Executive Director

In this report with the Omicron variant being reported on throughout the world we are looking at those countries outside of Europe and report on the restrictions for travellers that have now been brought into being in the wake of this new variant and we put out there what we know about this new variant according to the WHO (World Health Organization).

The United States, Canada, Hong Kong and Israel have all tightened rules around international travel in the wake of the emergence of the Omicron COVID-19 variant.

The US will require all air travellers entering the country to show a negative COVID-19 test performed within one day of departure. Currently, vaccinated travellers can present a negative result within 3 days. Passengers will also be required to test 3-5 days after arrival.

President Biden will extend until mid-March a requirement that travellers wear masks on airplanes, trains, and buses and at airports and transit stations, a person familiar with the decision said on Wednesday night.

The move to extend the mandate, which was set to expire on Jan. 18, is part of a much broader winter strategy for combating Covid-19 that Mr. Biden is to announce on Thursday, during a visit to the National Institutes of Health. The strategy will also include a new requirement that international travellers be tested for the coronavirus one day before departing for the United States, according to officials at the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention.

The president has already imposed travel restrictions on people coming to the United States from eight African nations, including South Africa. Mr. Biden said earlier this week that the restrictions were intended to buy the administration time; his science advisers, including Dr Anthony S. Fauci, the nation’s leading infectious disease specialist, have made clear that it would only be a matter of time before the variant arrived in the United States. The mask mandate extension was first reported by Reuters on Wednesday.

Hong Kong will ban non-residents from entering the city from Japan, Portugal, and Sweden from Friday. Hong Kong residents returning from nine countries which have reported cases of the Omicron coronavirus variant will from Thursday have to undergo 21 days of hotel quarantine as part of the highest-risk category, the government announced amid international concern at the new variant.

The tougher rules will affect returnees from Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Germany, Israel, and Italy, who previously only had a 14-day quarantine period. Residents can only board flights if fully vaccinated and will have to undergo 21-days of quarantine in a hotel at their own cost.They will have to take six Covid tests during their 21 days of hotel quarantine, under the tighter regulations announced on Monday evening.

All Hong Kong residents returning from eight southern African countries will be required to quarantine for seven days at government facilities and undergo daily Covid-19 testing before serving 14 days of hotel quarantine, health authorities announced on Monday. Travellers from Botswana, Eswatini, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, and Zimbabwe who are not Hong Kong residents and have not been fully vaccinated will be banned from entering the city. Hong Kong has reported three confirmed cases involving the Omicron virus since its emergence last Wednesday – all were detected during hotel quarantine.

Canada will extend its ban on travellers from Southern Africa to also cover those from Nigeria, Malawi and Egypt, health officials said on Tuesday, for a total of 10 countries. Canada will require people arriving by air from all nations except the United States to take a COVID-19 test, Health Minister Jean-Yves Duclos said.

Canadians and permanent residents, as well as all those who have the right to return to Canada, who have transited through these countries over the past two weeks, will have to quarantine, be tested at the airport, and await their test results before exiting quarantine, Duclos said.

It was also announced that all air travellers entering Canada — excluding those coming from the United States — would have to get tested when they arrive and isolate themselves until they receive a negative result. That measure applies to all travellers, regardless of vaccination status.

Meanwhile at the edge of Europe, earlier this week, Israel says it will ban the entry of all foreigners into the country, making it the first nation to shut its borders completely in response to a new and potentially more contagious coronavirus variant.

Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said the ban, pending government approval, would last 14 days. Officials hope within that period there will be more information on how effective COVID-19 vaccines are against Omicron, which was first detected in South Africa and has been dubbed a “variant of concern” by the World Health Organization.

“Our working hypotheses are that the variant is already in nearly every country,” Interior Minister Ayelet Shaked told N12’s Meet the Press. “And that the vaccine is effective, although we don’t yet know to what degree.”

The ban came into effect at midnight on Sunday. A travel ban on foreigners coming from most African states was imposed on Friday.

Dr Ran Balicer, head of the government’s advisory panel on COVID-19, told Israel’s Kan public radio the new measures were necessary for the “fog of war” surrounding the new variant, saying it was “better to act early and strictly” to prevent its spread.

On Saturday, Israel said it detected the new strain in a traveller who had returned from Malawi and was investigating seven other suspected cases. The seven people included three vaccinated individuals who all were placed in isolation.

Israeli citizens will be required to present a negative PCR test and quarantine themselves for three days if they have been vaccinated against the coronavirus and seven days if they have not. It was only four weeks ago that Israel reopened its borders to foreign tourists after a prolonged closure because of COVID. The new measures will also require all Israelis entering the country, including those who are vaccinated, to quarantine.

Fawcett said Israelis who are vaccinated will have to quarantine for a minimum of three days, while those who are unvaccinated will have to quarantine for seven days.

He added, “And if coming back from one of the newly red-listed African countries, they will have to go into a government quarantine hotel, until they test negative.”

Separately, Bennett said the Shin Bet counterterrorism agency’s phone-tracking technology will be used to locate carriers of the new variant to curb its transmission to others.

All these moves come as the World Health Organization warned that blanket travel bans will not stop the spread of Omicron. The organization urged ‘an evidence-informed and risk-based approach’ to any measures, including possible screening or quarantine of international travellers.

What do we know about this new Variant? The WHO says it’s not yet clear if the Omicron variant is spread from person-to-person more easily than other variants, including Delta. The number of people testing positive for COVID-19 has risen in South Africa where Omicron was first identified. More research is being carried out to determine whether this is due to Omicron, or to other factors.

Early data from South Africa shows the rate of hospitalization is rising among COVID-19 patients. However, there is no evidence so far that directly links infection with Omicron with an increased need for hospital treatment. The WHO says the rise in hospitalizations may be due to a general rise in infection rates. Many of the early Omicron cases reported in South Africa were among students. With other COVID-19 variants, younger people have generally had milder symptoms. There is currently no evidence to suggest Omicron symptoms are different, but it will likely take weeks to determine if Omicron causes more severe illness among the general population.

The WHO says it’s working with partners to understand the potential impact of Omicron variant on the effectiveness of vaccines and other COVID-19 countermeasures. As research continues, the WHO is reminding people that vaccines remain effective against other COVID-19 variants – including the dominant Delta strain – and are the best way to avoid severe disease and death. Preliminary research shows the new variant may increase the risk of reinfection for people who have already had COVID-19, according to the WHO. However, data is currently limited, and more information should be made available in the coming days. In terms of testing for infections, existing PCR tests are effective at detecting the Omicron variant.

Total Cases Worldwide – 264,089,584

Total Deaths Worldwide – 5,246,313

Total Recovered Worldwide – 238,296,275

Total Active Cases Worldwide – 20,546,996 (7.8 % of the total cases)

Total Closed Cases Worldwide – 243,542,588

Information and Resources:

https://www.worldometer.info/coronavirus/

Other Resources and Information:

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/11/28/israel-to-ban-entry-of-all-foreigners-over-omicron

https://www.reuters.com/world/

https://www.who.int/news-room/articles-detail/who-advice-for-international-traffic-in-relation-to-the-sars-cov-2-omicron-variant

 

 

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