Travel restrictions imposed due to Coronavirus variant
Omicron variant affecting travel
U.S. (KYMA, KECY/NBC) - News of the Omicron Coronavirus variant spread rapidly, which resulted in the United States, as well as several other countries, imposing travel restrictions as quickly as possible.
President Biden set travel restrictions for Monday, November 29, as cases of this new variant emerged.
The World Health Organization (WHO) made a statement regarding the Omicron variant.
Doctor Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General, said, "If there is one thing we have learned, it's that no region, no country, no community and no individual is safe until we are all safe. The emergence of the highly mutated Omicron variant underlines just how perilous and precarious our situation is. South Africa and Botswana should be thanked for detecting, sequencing and reporting this variant, not penalized."
While there are many uncertainties surrounding the mutated Coronavirus strain, scientists around the world are gathering as much information as they can.
Dr. Ghebreyesus continued, "We don't yet know whether Omicron is associated with more transmission, more severe disease, more risk of reinfections, or more risk of evading vaccines. Scientists at WHO and around the world are working urgently to answer these questions. We shouldn't need another wake up call. We should all be wide awake to the threat of this virus. But Omicron's very emergence is another reminder that although many of us might think we are done with COVID-19, it's not done with us."