28 NOVEMBER 2021

REVIEW PLANS FOR EASING INTERNATIONAL TRAVEL

Germany, Italy and UK detected cases of the new ‘Omicron variant’ of corona virus and many countries imposed restrictions of travel from South Africa. The new variant identified first in South Africa, but also detected in Europe and Asia.

In India, Prime Minister Narendra Modi directed the officials to review the plans to ease international travel restrictions, in the light of the emerging new “Omicron variant’ of the coronavirus.

 During the meeting, officials discussed about the new variant of concern, ‘Omicron’ and its implications seen in various countries.

 “The news about this new variant should make clear than ever why this pandemic will not end until we have global vaccinations,” said Joe Biden, US President.

The US is also planning to restrict travel from South Africa, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Lesotho, Mozambique, Eswatini, Malawi and Namibia.

WHO warned all countries to scale up surveillance, strengthen public health and social measures.

“There are fewer than 100 whole genome sequences that are available, 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,” WHO’s Covid 19 technical lead, Dr. Maria Van Kerkhove tweeted.

“People can do a lot to protect themselves from Covid, including by continuing to wear masks and avoiding crowds,” WHO added.