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‘Race against time’: Omicron adds to Europe’s growing Covid woes
Experts feel that the current vaccines may not be able to protect from this variant first found in southern African nations of South Africa and Botswana.
As omicron Covid variant forces nations to close down borders, Dutch health authorities confirmed at least 13 cases of omicron among 61 quarantined passengers, news agency AFP reported.
These 61 passengers reached from South Africa on two flights from Cape Town and Johannesburg. The Dutch health authorities are analysing the remaining samples. The cases rising in the Netherlands indicate that the omicron variant is spreading across Europe as it already battles with rising cases in Austria, Netherlands, Germany and Denmark among others.
German health authorities also reported fresh cases of omicron variant in Essen and Dusseldorf, news agency Bloomberg reported citing German news outlets.
Australia, Hong Kong and Israel are among the countries outside of Europe that have identified cases of the new variant.
Experts feel that the current vaccines may not be able to protect from this variant first found in southern African nations of South Africa and Botswana.
Moderna Inc. Chief Medical Officer Paul Burton told news agencies that he suspects that the variant may elude current vaccines. “We should know about the ability of the current vaccine to provide protection in the next couple of weeks. If we have to make a brand new vaccine, I think that’s going to be early 2022 before that’s really going to be available in large quantities,” Burton was quoted as saying by news agencies BBC and Bloomberg.
European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen said vaccine manufacturers needed a few weeks to understand the quality of mutations. “We know we are now in a race against time,” von der Leyen was quoted as saying by news agency AFP.
Among southern African nations Angola became the first to suspend all flights from Mozambique, Namibia and South Africa, news agency AFP reported.
