Emergence of omicron underscores case for global COVID-19 action plan: Experts 

People wait in line to get tested for COVID-19 at a testing facility in Times Square on December 9, 2021 in New York City. (AFP)
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Updated 19 December 2021
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Emergence of omicron underscores case for global COVID-19 action plan: Experts 

  • Social distancing and travel bans have returned in many countries since variant detected in November  
  • 8.4 billion vaccines administered, just 7.1 percent of people in low-income countries have had at least one dose 

DUBAI: Just as the world thought it had turned a corner in the fight against COVID-19, hopes of a return to normality were dashed when doctors in South Africa reported that around 3,000 of their patients had contracted a new, possibly more infectious and potentially more vaccine-resistant variant of the coronavirus.

The emergence last month of B.1.1.529 — named omicron by the World Health Organization in line with its system of designating notable variants after letters of the Greek alphabet — sent governments into a frenzy just weeks before the busy Christmas and new year travel season was due to begin. 

Mask-wearing, social distancing, mass testing and work-from-home rules were quickly reimposed in many countries to help contain the anticipated spread of the new variant, while governments closed their borders to travelers from nations where omicron was present.

Despite the rapid response, the variant has already gained a foothold on almost every continent and is expected to become the dominant strain, replacing the previous variant of concern known as delta. 

Emmanuel Kouvousis, senior scientific adviser at Vesta Care, believes the coronavirus will continue to enjoy the upper hand as long as countries lack a united plan of action to achieve a higher global rate of vaccination. 

“If I can make a prediction, I would say the virus will stay around for at least five years from the day it started,” Kouvousis told Arab News, adding that omicron is unlikely to be the last COVID-19 mutation, with at least two more dominant strains expected before the pandemic is truly over. 

By Dec. 1, the number of people infected by omicron in South Africa had more than doubled to 8,561. At least 11 EU countries have since reported cases of omicron, while health officials in the UK expect to see as many as 1 million cases by the end of the year.

Among the Gulf Cooperation Countries, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain, Kuwait and Oman have all reported their first cases of omicron. Israel, Japan and Morocco have closed their borders entirely to foreign travelers. 




A medical worker prepares a BioNtech-Pfizer COVID-19 coronavirus vaccine in Makati City, suburban Manila on November 29, 2021. (AFP/File Photo)

Part of the problem, according to Konstantinos Dimitrakopoulos, director and head of the medical division at Intelligent Care Group, is that many people are misinformed about the effect of vaccines and are under the false impression they are completely immune once jabbed. 

“The vaccine does not stop you from getting the virus. It doesn’t stop you from contracting it. It doesn’t stop you from spreading it. It simply diminishes your chance of dying or having severe symptoms,” he told Arab News.

“For the vaccine to be the ultimate tool, we would have to press a button and instantly vaccinate billions of people at once” — which is, of course, impossible.

Another issue is the “massive time lags” between populations receiving the first and second doses of the vaccine, which naturally weakens the fight against a rapidly mutating virus.   

“The global community went from understanding the virus, to screening the virus, to developing the vaccines, then vaccinating the people with a time lag, which is a natural lag due to production restrictions,” said Dimitrakopoulos.




Travelers queue at a check-in counter at OR Tambo International Airport in Johannesburg on November 27, 2021, after several countries banned flights from South Africa following the discovery of the Omicron variant. (AFP)

The large disparity in resources and financial capabilities between countries across the globe is one of several factors that have hindered efforts to beat the virus before it could mutate yet again.

After all, despite the administration of more than 8.4 billion vaccine doses worldwide as of early December, an average of just 7.1 percent of people in low-income countries have received at least one jab.  

“We do not have factories globally that can produce the vaccines on such a scale, or distribute and administer them simultaneously in a very short window of time,” said Dimitrakopoulos.

However, simply sending more vaccines to poorer countries in Africa and Asia in the hope of increasing the rate of vaccination is unlikely to solve the problem.

“There’s always that question of who will run the last mile and take the vaccines to every single village or area and administer them,” said Dimitrakopoulos.




A lab technician works inside a pathological lab equipped to screen COVID-19 patients and those infected with the Omicron variant arriving from high-risk destinations at a government hospital in Chennai. (AFP)

Another factor is the interconnectedness of the world and lack of a uniform global policy for screening the virus. “As long as airports are open, the virus has unlimited ways to spread,” Dimitrakopoulos added. 

Indeed, most of the world’s population is not sufficiently covered by a healthcare system that follows strict screening procedures, responds rapidly to cases by enforcing self-isolation, and provides treatments and vaccinations against the virus.

Distribution is not only being hampered by logistical challenges in the developing world. The monopolization of vaccines as intellectual property by a handful of big pharmaceutical firms has also limited production, according to Kouvousis.

Smaller “generic companies” do not have access to the vaccine’s recipe and, as a result, are unable to boost production or expand its reach in poorer countries, he said. 




With the newly discovered Omicron strain of COVID-19, health officials globally are urging people to get a vaccination or a booster and get tested for the virus. (AFP)

One of the most concerning factors is the widespread public skepticism surrounding vaccinations. Misinformation or a lack of education has meant that large segments of the population neglect social distancing and hygiene measures or outright object to receiving a vaccine. 

These factors combined have allowed the virus to slip through the cracks once more. “There was a delay in putting the message out there on a global scale,” said Kouvousis. 

“We lost momentum because of that arrogance as a medical community who didn’t fear anything and thought they could handle everything,” said Kouvousis. “The numbers are now saying something else.”

According to the Johns Hopkins University Coronavirus Resource Center, the COVID-19 death toll has now surpassed 5.3 million worldwide.

Dimitrakopoulos agrees the world has become complacent, and that more could have been done before and during the pandemic to better prepare for the initial outbreak and the rise of new variants. 




Children accompanied by their parents wait in line as they arrive to receive a dose of COVID-19 vaccine, outside of the vaccination centre of Parque das Nacoes in Lisbon on December 18, 2021. (AFP)

“Our emergency plans have never been tested,” he said. “The first time that they were supposed to be tested, they proved inefficient; everything was made ad hoc and on the spot as the pandemic was developing.”

Some countries were better prepared when the pandemic hit, while others have adapted well to contain new variants as they have emerged. 

One example of a success story is the UAE, where 100 percent of the population has received its first dose of the vaccine, and over 90 percent are now fully vaccinated. 

“When the virus hit (in February 2020), the daily capacity of the UAE market to perform PCR tests was about 5,000 samples,” said Dimitrakopoulos. Today, the UAE has the capacity to run more than half a million tests per day, process samples and track the source of the virus.

The omicron variant has nevertheless left scientists scrambling to determine its transmissibility and lethality. 

“The data takes time to gather and analyze, but we should have a better idea by the end of December whether omicron is as transmissible or more highly transmissible than the delta variant,” Dr. Matthew Binnicker, director of clinical virology at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, told Arab News. 




Shoppers, some wearing face coverings to combat the spread of the virus, walks past stores on Oxford Street in London on December 18, 2021. (AFP)

According to the WHO, “a new variant doesn’t mean that things will necessarily be worse, but it does mean that they will be more uncertain.”

Binnicker added: “The best way to prevent mutations from arising is to reduce the number of people being infected. If the virus can’t infect someone, it doesn’t have the opportunity to replicate its genome and this prevents mutations from occurring.” 

Preliminary studies show that a third dose of a vaccine, known as a booster, increases neutralizing antibody levels 25-fold compared with two doses, which alone provide at least 70 percent protection against the omicron variant. 

“In order to significantly reduce the number of infections, we’ll likely need a global immunity rate (from vaccination and/or natural immunity) of at least 80 percent,” said Binnicker. “The faster we can vaccinate the global population, the faster we can drive down the rate of infections and prevent new variants from emerging.” 

To make this a reality, many in the medical community are coming around to the idea of mandatory vaccinations — an idea that could well prove politically unpopular. For this reason, Dimitrakopoulos would like the decision taken out of the hands of politicians.

“In order to tackle the global political issue around mandatory vaccinations, a directive should come from the health authorities such as the WHO and the CDC (US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention),” he said. “Not the governments, not the politicians.”


Bangladesh opens trial of ex-PM Hasina for crimes against humanity

Updated 01 June 2025
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Bangladesh opens trial of ex-PM Hasina for crimes against humanity

  • Hearing broadcast live for first in special tribunal’s history
  • Former home minister, ex-police chief ordered to be in court for second hearing on June 16

DHAKA: Bangladeshi prosecutors on Sunday opened the trial of fugitive former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, who is charged with orchestrating last year’s deadly crackdown on student-led protests.

Peaceful demonstrations, triggered by the reinstatement of a quota system for the allocation of civil service positions, began in early July 2024 but two weeks later they were met with a communications blackout and a violent crackdown by security forces.

In early August, as protesters defied a nationwide curfew, Hasina resigned and fled the country, ending 15 years in power of her Awami League party-led government.

“She unleashed various law enforcement and intelligence agencies against them (the protesting students) … They slaughtered the agitating students, injured them and committed crimes against humanity,” Mohammad Tajul Islam, chief prosecutor at Bangladesh’s domestic International Crimes Tribunal, told the court in his opening speech.

He charged the 77-year-old with “incitement, aiding and abetting, involvement in the commission of the crimes of murder, attempted murder, torture and other inhumane acts as part of the widespread and systematic attacks on innocent unarmed students and the public.”

The UN’s human rights office concluded in February that between July 15 and Aug. 5, 2024, the former government and its security and intelligence apparatus, together with “violent elements” linked to the Awami League, “engaged systematically in serious human rights violations and abuses in a coordinated effort to suppress the protest movement.”

It estimated that at least 1,400 people were killed during the protests, the majority by bullets from military rifles.

ICT investigators have collected video footage, audio clips, records of helicopter and drone movements, as well as statements from victims of the crackdown as part of the probe.

They also “seized records of telephonic conversations of Sheikh Hasina, in which she repeatedly confirmed that she ordered all the state agencies to eliminate innocent civilians peacefully protesting for a fair demand, using helicopters, drones and APCs (armored personnel carriers),” Islam said.

Sunday’s hearing was broadcast live for the first in the ICT’s history.

“The court accepted the charges against Sheikh Hasina, former Home Affairs Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal and former police chief Chowdhury Abdullah Al-Mamun. There are five charges against them and the court accepted all five charges. We presented the charges through live broadcast before the nation,” Islam told reporters after the hearing.

Al-Mamun is the only accused who has been detained while the ex-home minister is in hiding and Hasina remains in self-imposed exile in neighboring India.

The next hearing is scheduled to take place on June 16. The tribunal ordered all three accused to be presented before the court.

The International Crimes Tribunal was established by Hasina in 2010 to investigate crimes committed by the Pakistani army and its loyalists during Bangladesh’s independence war in 1971.

Over the years, it grew to be widely seen as the Hasina government’s tool for eliminating political rivals.


Zelensky says Ukraine will send a delegation to Istanbul for talks with Russia on Monday

Updated 01 June 2025
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Zelensky says Ukraine will send a delegation to Istanbul for talks with Russia on Monday

  • In a statement on Telegram, Zelensky said that Defense Minister Rustem Umerov will lead the Ukrainian delegation, stating "we are doing everything to protect our independence, our state and our people”

KYIV: Ukraine will send a delegation to Istanbul for a new round of direct peace talks with Russia on Monday, President Volodymyr Zelensky said, even as Russia pounded Ukraine with a missile strike that killed 12 soldiers and the biggest drone assault of the three-year war.
In a statement on Telegram, Zelensky said Sunday that Defense Minister Rustem Umerov will lead the Ukrainian delegation. “We are doing everything to protect our independence, our state and our people,” Zelensky said.
Ukrainian officials had previously called on the Kremlin to provide a promised memorandum setting out its position on ending the war before the meeting takes place. Moscow had said it would share its memorandum during the talks.
Russian strike hits an army unit
Russia launched the biggest number of drones on Ukraine since the full-scale invasion three years ago, Ukraine’s air force said Sunday. The air force said 472 drones were launched over Ukraine.
Russian forces also launched seven missiles alongside the barrage of drones, said Yuriy Ignat, head of communications for the Ukrainian air force. Earlier Sunday, Ukraine’s army said at least 12 Ukrainian service members were killed and more than 60 were injured in a Russian missile strike on an army training unit.
The strike occurred at 12:50 p.m. (0950 GMT), the statement said, emphasizing that no formations or mass gatherings of personnel were being held at the time. An investigative commission was created to uncover the circumstances around the attack that led to such a loss in personnel, the statement said.
The training unit is located to the rear of the 1,000-kilometer (620-mile) active front line, where Russian reconnaissance and strike drones are able to strike.
Ukraine’s forces suffer from manpower shortages and take extra precautions to avoid mass gatherings as the skies across the front line are saturated with Russian drones looking for targets.
“If it is established that the actions or inaction of officials led to the death or injury of servicemen, those responsible will be held strictly accountable,” the Ukrainian Ground Forces’ statement said.
Meanwhile, Ukrainian drone strikes were reported deep in Russian territory Sunday, including in the Siberian region of Irkutsk, more than 4,500 kilometers (2,800 miles) east of Moscow.
It is the first time that a Ukrainian drone has been seen in the region, local Gov. Igor Kobzeva said, stressing that it did not present a threat to civilians.
Other drone strikes were also reported in Russia’s Ryazan region and the Arctic Murmansk region. No casualties were reported.
Northern pressure
Russia’s Ministry of Defense said Sunday that it had taken control of the village of Oleksiivka in Ukraine’s northern Sumy region. Ukrainian authorities in Sumy ordered mandatory evacuations in 11 more settlements Saturday as Russian forces make steady gains in the area.
Speaking Saturday, Ukraine’s top army chief, Oleksandr Syrskyi, said that Russian forces were focusing their main offensive efforts on Pokrovsk, Toretsk and Lyman in the Donetsk region, as well as the Sumy border area.


Russia and Ukraine step up the war on eve of peace talks

Emergency medics transport a wounded passenger after a road bridge collapsed on top of a passenger train in the Bryansk region.
Updated 01 June 2025
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Russia and Ukraine step up the war on eve of peace talks

  • Ukraine attacked Russian nuclear-capable long-range bombers at a military base deep in Siberia on Sunday, a Ukrainian intelligence official said

MOSCOW/KYIV: On the eve of peace talks, Ukraine and Russia sharply ramped up the war with one of the biggest drone battles of their conflict, a Russian highway bridge blown up over a passenger train and an ambitious attack on nuclear-capable bombers deep in Siberia.
After days of uncertainty over whether or not Ukraine would even attend, President Volodymyr Zelensky said Defense Minister Rustem Umerov would sit down with Russian officials at the second round of direct peace talks in Istanbul on Monday.
The first round of the talks more than a week ago yielded the biggest prisoner exchange of the war — but no sense of any consensus on how to halt the fighting.
Amid talk of peace, though, there was much war.
At least seven people were killed and 69 injured when a highway bridge in Russia’s Bryansk region, neighboring Ukraine, was blown up over a passenger train heading to Moscow with 388 people on board. No one has yet claimed responsibility.
Ukraine attacked Russian nuclear-capable long-range bombers at a military base deep in Siberia on Sunday, a Ukrainian intelligence official said, the first such attack so far from the front lines more than 4,300 km (2,670 miles) away.
The official said the operation involved hiding explosive-laden drones inside the roofs of wooden sheds and loading them onto trucks that were driven to the perimeter of the air bases.
A total of 41 Russian warplanes were hit, the official said.

Russia acknowledges air base attacks, says fires put out 
Ukraine did not tell the Trump administration about the attack in advance, Axios reporter Barak Ravid said on X, citing an unnamed Ukrainian official.
Russia’s Defense Ministry acknowledged on the Telegram messaging app that Ukraine had launched drone strikes against Russian military airfields across five regions on Sunday.
It said the attacks repelled the assaults in all but two regions — Murmansk in the far north and Irkutsk in Siberia — where “the launch of FPV drones from an area in close proximity to airfields resulted in several aircraft catching fire.”
The fires were extinguished without casualties. Some individuals involved in the attacks had been detained, the ministry said.
Russia launched 472 drones at Ukraine overnight, Ukraine’s air force said, the highest nightly total of the war so far. Russia had also launched seven missiles, the air force said.
Russia said it had advanced deeper into the Sumy region of Ukraine, and open source pro-Ukrainian maps showed Russia took 450 square km of Ukrainian land in May, its fastest monthly advance in at least six months.
US President Donald Trump has demanded Russia and Ukraine make peace and he has threatened to walk away if they do not — potentially pushing responsibility for supporting Ukraine onto the shoulders of European powers — which have far less cash and much smaller stocks of weapons than the United States.
According to Trump envoy Keith Kellogg, the two sides will in Turkiye present their respective documents outlining their ideas for peace terms, though it is clear that after three years of intense war, Moscow and Kyiv remain far apart.
Putin ordered tens of thousands of troops to invade Ukraine in February 2022 after eight years of fighting in eastern Ukraine between Russian-backed separatists and Ukrainian troops. The United States says over 1.2 million people have been killed and injured in the war since 2022.
Trump has called Putin “crazy” and berated Zelensky in public in the Oval Office, but the US president has also said that he thinks peace is achievable and that if Putin delays then he could impose tough sanctions on Russia.
In June last year, Putin set out his opening terms for an immediate end to the war: Ukraine must drop its NATO ambitions and withdraw all of its troops from the entirety of the territory of four Ukrainian regions claimed and mostly controlled by Russia.
Ukrainian negotiators in Istanbul will present to the Russian side a proposed roadmap for reaching a lasting peace settlement, according to a copy of the document seen by Reuters.
According to the document, there will be no restrictions on Ukraine’s military strength after a peace deal is struck, no international recognition of Russian sovereignty over parts of Ukraine taken by Moscow’s forces, and reparations for Ukraine.
The document also stated that the current location of the front line will be the starting point for negotiations about territory.
Russia currently controls a little under one fifth of Ukraine, or about 113,100 square km, about the same size as the US state of Ohio. 


Russian strike kills 12 Ukrainian soldiers during training: Kyiv

Updated 01 June 2025
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Russian strike kills 12 Ukrainian soldiers during training: Kyiv

  • Kyiv did not say where the strike took place, but stressed the soldiers were not taking part in a “mass gathering” and most were in their shelters during the attack

KYIV: A Russian missile strike on a Ukrainian army training area killed at least 12 soldiers and wounded dozens more Sunday, Kyiv said, in a rare admission of its military losses.
Kyiv did not say where the strike took place, but stressed the soldiers were not taking part in a “mass gathering” and most were in their shelters during the attack.
The Ukrainian army has in recent weeks faced pressure to investigate what some see as glaring lapses in ensuring the safety of training soldiers.
Six soldiers training close to the border were killed by a Russian strike last month, in what one Ukrainian opposition politician called a “crime” by army leadership.
“Today, on June 1, the enemy launched a missile strike on the location of one of the training units of the Ukrainian army,” the Ukrainian army said in a statement.
“As of 12:50 p.m. (0950 GMT), 12 people are known to have been killed and more than 60 wounded.”
“If it is established that the deaths and injuries of the servicemen were caused by the actions or inaction of officials, those responsible will be brought to strict accountability,” it added.
Separately on Sunday, the Russian army said it had captured another village in Ukraine’s northern Sumy region, where Kyiv fears Moscow could mount a fresh ground assault.
Russia claims to have captured several settlements in the region in recent weeks, and has massed more than 50,000 soldiers on the other side of the border, according to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
Authorities in the region have evacuated more than 200 villages amid intensified shelling.


China’s Yunnan hit with floods, mudslides from intense rains

Updated 01 June 2025
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China’s Yunnan hit with floods, mudslides from intense rains

  • Over 600 tourists visiting rural scenic spots in the area on Saturday found themselves trapped, according to Xinhua, which reported 500 of them had been rescued by Sunday

BEIJING: Heavy rainfall triggering flash floods and mudslides have damaged roads, destroyed buildings and claimed bridges, wreaking havoc in China’s southwestern Yunnan province on a long holiday weekend.
No casualties were reported but more than 4,800 residents in Gongshan county were affected, with about one-third of them urgently relocated, state news agency Xinhua said.
Over 600 tourists visiting rural scenic spots in the area on Saturday found themselves trapped, according to Xinhua, which reported 500 of them had been rescued by Sunday.
Road access to mountainous sites popular with hikers such as Bingzhongluo town and Yubeng village in neighboring Deqin county were cut off, state broadcaster CCTV.
The Dulong river saw flood waters swell to record levels, according to historical logs from a hydrological monitoring station.
A four-story building set along the river that had been evacuated collapsed, CCTV reported, showing a video of the structure tipping backwards and disappearing into a cloud of dust.
The intense rainfall over a 12-hour period disrupted power supplies. Repair work to roads and power lines was underway, said state media.
Local authorities had issued a red alert ahead of the rainstorm on Friday night but downgraded it to a yellow alert by Saturday morning.
China uses a four-color warning system that escalates from blue, yellow, orange to red according to the level of precipitation and anticipated risks.