COVID-19: WHO for Asia-Pacific must pass Omicron: 10 points

Despite closing its borders to travel from high-risk countries in South Africa, Australia has become the latest country to report community transmission of the new variant, a day after it was found. found locally in 5 US states.

Omicron started to gain ground in Asia this week, with cases reported in India, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore and South Korea. Many governments have tightened travel rules to prevent the new variant, but the WHO’s warning for the Asia-Pacific, a region of about 650 million people, emphasizes that border controls can only be can buy them time.

“People should not just rely on border measures,” Takeshi Kasai, WHO Regional Director for the Western Pacific, told a virtual media press conference. “The most important thing is to be prepared for these variants to be highly transmissible. So far, the information available suggests we don’t need to change our approach.”

Vaccination rates vary between countries in Asia and the Pacific, but there are worrying gaps. Indonesia, the world’s fourth most populous country and Asia’s COVID-19 epicenter, is only fully vaccinated for about 35 percent of its population of 270 million.

Australia’s chief medical officer says Omicron is likely to become the dominant variant globally within a few months, but at this stage there is no evidence it is more deadly than the Delta that swept the world in this early year. “I suspect within (the next few months) Omicron will be the new virus in the world,” Paul Kelly, the Australian government’s top medical adviser, told reporters.

In the US, the Biden administration has announced a series of measures to protect against the spread of the virus. International air travelers to the United States will be required to have a negative COVID-19 test result within one day of travel. Less than 60% of the US population, or 196 million people, is fully immunized, one of the lowest rates in wealthy nations.

Global travel restrictions have accelerated with Hong Kong, the Netherlands, Norway and Russia, among others, announcing new measures on Thursday. Malaysia said on Friday that it would tighten restrictions further.

In addition to the devastation of the travel industry, the grip has weakened financial markets and weakened major economies just as they have begun to recover from the Delta-induced shutdowns. Shares in India, Japan and South Korea fell on Friday after falling overnight on Wall Street.

Europe’s largest economy, Germany, said it would ban unvaccinated from all essential businesses, and mandatory vaccination legislation would be drafted early next year.

Several countries including the UK and US have introduced plans to provide booster shots, but, like the travel ban, this is controversial. Australian authorities on Friday said there was “no evidence” such moves would have any effect.