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.”


India evacuates students from Tehran as Israel hits civilian sites

Smoke billows from an explosion in southwest Tehran on June 16, 2025. (AFP)
Updated 4 sec ago
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India evacuates students from Tehran as Israel hits civilian sites

  • About 6,000 Indian students are enrolled in Iranian universities
  • So far 110 studying in Urmia have left the country through Armenia

NEW DELHI: India’s Foreign Ministry said on Tuesday it was moving Indian students out of Tehran, as many sought safety after their universities were shut down amid ongoing Israeli airstrikes.

Israeli attacks on Iran started on Friday, when Tel Aviv hit more than a dozen sites — including key nuclear facilities, residences of military leaders, and of scientists — claiming they were aimed at preventing Iran from developing nuclear weapons.

Daily attacks have been ongoing for the past five days after Iran retaliated with ballistic missile strikes against Israel.

As the Israeli military intensified its bombing of civilian targets, hitting Iran’s state broadcaster on Monday, stranded foreigners — including 6,000 Indian students — have been struggling to leave.

“Most of the students here were living in apartments, including me and my friend. The first blast in Tehran happened in Sa’adat Abad district, where me and my friend were living,” Hafsa Yaseen, a medical student at Shahid Beheshti University, told Arab News.

“One of our university’s nuclear scientists was martyred in these blasts. Situation is really bad.”

According to the Iranian Ministry of Health and Medical Education, at least 224 people have been killed and 1,481 wounded in Israeli attacks since Friday. Most of the casualties have been reported in Tehran.

India’s Ministry of External Affairs confirmed in a statement that it was moving those studying at universities in the Iranian capital “out of the city for reasons of safety.”

Yaseen was among a group of a few hundred students moved on Monday to Qom, 140 km south of the capital city.

“Me and my friend were frightened, and we just thought it’s our turn now to die. We were literally calling our parents and telling them goodbye,” she said.

“We are not even safe here, because we are still in Iran (and) anything can happen ... We are in constant fear that we might die and our families are more stressed than us. I just want to request the government of India to evacuate us from here as soon as possible.”

A group of 110 Indian students from Urmia University of Medical Sciences in northwestern Iran has already been assisted by the Indian authorities to leave through the land border with Armenia.

“All the Indian students who had crossed the Iran-Armenia border have now safely reached the capital city, Yerevan. This includes around 90 students from Kashmir Valley, along with others from various Indian states,” said Nasir Khuehami, national convenor of the Jammu and Kashmir Students Union.

“Their flight from Armenia to Delhi is scheduled for tomorrow, with all necessary arrangements being facilitated in coordination with the Indian authorities. This comes as an immense relief to the families.”

The families of those remaining in Iran have been pleading with Indian authorities to also bring them home.

“Please save my daughters. My two daughters study (at) Shahid Beheshti University. They are in great panic — the situation in Tehran is so bad that students are in great panic,” one of the mothers, Mubeena Ali, told Arab News through tears.

“They have been shifted to Qom but they feel afraid ... They are greatly distressed. They want to be evacuated.”


Trump mulls extending travel ban to 36 more nations: source

Updated 28 sec ago
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Trump mulls extending travel ban to 36 more nations: source

  • The Washington Post said it reviewed the internal memo and reported it was signed by Secretary of State Marco Rubio and sent to diplomats who work with the countries
  • The ban at first did not include Egypt, although the proposed follow-up list does

WASHINGTON: The United States is considering extending its travel ban to 36 more countries, a person who has seen the memo said Monday, marking a dramatic potential expansion of entry restrictions to nearly 1.5 billion people.

The State Department early this month announced it was barring entry to citizens of 12 nations including Afghanistan, Haiti and Iran and imposing a partial ban on travelers from seven other countries, reviving a divisive measure from President Donald Trump’s first term.

But expanding the travel ban to three dozen more nations, including US partners like Egypt along with other countries in Africa, Asia, the Caribbean and the Pacific, appears to escalate the president’s crackdown on immigration.

The Washington Post said it reviewed the internal memo and reported it was signed by Secretary of State Marco Rubio and sent to diplomats who work with the countries.

A person who has seen the document confirmed its accuracy to AFP.

It reportedly gives the governments of the listed nations 60 days to meet new requirements established by the State Department.

The countries include the most populous in Africa — Nigeria, Ethiopia, Egypt, Democratic Republic of Congo and Tanzania — as well as Cambodia, Kyrgyzstan, Saint Lucia, South Sudan, Syria and Vanuatu.

Should the ban expand to include all countries cited in the memo, nearly one in five people worldwide would live in a country targeted by US travel restrictions.

The 19 countries facing full or partial entry bans to the United States, combined with the 36 cited in the latest memo, account for 1.47 billion people, or roughly 18 percent of the global population.

The State Department declined to confirm the memo, saying it does not comment on internal deliberations.

But it said in a statement that “we are constantly reevaluating policies to ensure the safety of Americans and that foreign nationals follow our laws.”

When the initial ban was announced this month, Trump warned it could be expanded to other countries “as threats emerge around the world.”

The ban at first did not include Egypt, although the proposed follow-up list does.

Trump said the initial measure was spurred by a recent “terrorist attack” on Jews in Colorado.

US officials said that the attack’s suspect Mohamed Sabry Soliman, an Egyptian national according to court documents, was in the country illegally having overstayed a tourist visa, but that he had applied for asylum in September 2022.


Overnight Russian attack on Ukraine kills 15 and injures 156

Updated 12 min 56 sec ago
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Overnight Russian attack on Ukraine kills 15 and injures 156

  • At least 14 people were killed as explosions echoed across the Ukrainian capital for almost nine hours
  • Russia fired more than 440 drones and 32 missiles, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said

KYIV: An overnight Russian missile and drone bombardment of Ukraine killed 15 people and injured 156, local officials said Tuesday, with the main barrage demolishing a nine-story Kyiv apartment building in the deadliest attack on the capital this year.

At least 14 people were killed as explosions echoed across the Ukrainian capital for almost nine hours, Kyiv City Military Administration head Tymur Tkachenko said, destroying dozens of apartments.

Russia fired more than 440 drones and 32 missiles, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said, calling the Kyiv attack “one of the most terrifying strikes” on the capital.

Ukraine’s Interior Ministry said 139 people were injured in Kyiv. Mayor Vitalii Klitschko announced that Wednesday would be an official day of mourning.

The attack came after two rounds of direct peace talks failed to make progress on ending the war, now in its fourth year.

Russia steps up aerial attacks

Russia has repeatedly hit civilian areas of Ukraine with missiles and drones. The attacks have killed more than 12,000 Ukrainian civilians, according to the United Nations. Russia says it strikes only military targets.

Russia has in recent months stepped up its aerial attacks. It launched almost 500 drones at Ukraine on June 10 in the biggest overnight drone bombardment of the war. Russia also pounded Kyiv on April 24, killing at least 12 people.

The intensified long-range strikes have coincided with a Russian summer offensive on eastern and northeastern sections of the roughly 1,000-kilometer (620-mile) front line, where Ukraine is short-handed and needs more military support from its Western partners.

Uncertainty about US policy on the war has fueled doubts about how much help Kyiv can count on. Zelensky had been set to meet with US President Donald Trump at a G7 summit in Canada on Tuesday to press him for more help. But Trump returned early to Washington on Monday night because of tensions in the Middle East.

Ukraine tries to keep the world’s attention

Zelensky is seeking to prevent Ukraine from being sidelined in international diplomacy. Trump said earlier this month it might be better to let Ukraine and Russia “fight for a while” before pulling them apart and pursuing peace, but European leaders have urged him to pressure Russian President Vladimir Putin into accepting a ceasefire.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Tuesday it is unclear when another round of talks might take place.

Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said Russia’s attacks during the G7 summit showed Putin’s “total disrespect” for the US and other countries.

“Russia not only rejects a ceasefire or a leaders’ meeting to find solutions and end the war. It cynically strikes Ukraine’s capital while pretending to seek diplomatic solutions,” Sybiha wrote on social media.

Ukrainian forces have hit back against Russia with their own domestically produced long-range
drones.

The Russian military said it downed 203 Ukrainian drones over 10 Russian regions between Monday evening and Tuesday morning.

Russian civil aviation agency Rosaviatsia reported briefly halting flights overnight in and out of all four Moscow airports, as well as those in the cities of Kaluga, Tambov and Nizhny Novgorod as a precaution.

Overnight Russian drone strikes also struck the southern Ukrainian port city of Odesa, killing one person and injuring 17 others, according to Oleh Kiper, head of the regional administration.

Putin “is doing this simply because he can afford to continue the war. He wants the war to go on. It is troubling when the powerful of this world turn a blind eye to it,” Zelensky said.

Russian attack demolishes apartment building

The Russian attack delivered “direct hits on residential buildings,” the Kyiv City Military Administration said in a statement. “Rockets — from the upper floors to the basement,” it said.

A US citizen died in the attack after suffering shrapnel wounds, Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko told reporters.

Thirty apartments were destroyed in a single residential block after it was struck by a ballistic missile, Klymenko said.

“We have 27 locations that were attacked by the enemy. We currently have over 2,000 people working there, rescuers, police, municipal services and doctors,” he told reporters at the scene of one attack.

Olena Lapyshniak, 49, was shaken from the strike that nearly leveled her apartment building. She heard a whistling sound and then two explosions that blew out her windows and doors.

“It’s horrible, it’s scary, in one moment there is no life,” she said. “There’s no military infrastructure here, nothing here, nothing. It’s horrible when people just die at night.”

People were wounded in the city’s Sviatoshynskyi and Solomianskyi districts. Fires broke out in two other city districts as a result of falling debris from drones shot down by Ukrainian air defenses, the mayor said.

Moscow escalated attacks after Ukraine’s Security Service agency staged an audacious operation targeting warplanes in air bases deep inside Russian territory on June 1.


Spain says April power outage caused by ‘overvoltage’

Updated 19 min 26 sec ago
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Spain says April power outage caused by ‘overvoltage’

  • Ecological Transition Minister Sara Aagesen said the system “lacked sufficient voltage control capacity” that day
  • Authorities have been scrambling to find answers after the April 28 outage

MADRID: A major power outage that struck the Iberian Peninsula in April was caused by “overvoltage” on the grid that led to “a chain reaction,” according to a government report released Tuesday.

The blackout had “multiple” causes, Ecological Transition Minister Sara Aagesen told reporters following a cabinet meeting, adding the system “lacked sufficient voltage control capacity” that day.

Overvoltage is when there is too much electrical voltage in a network, overloading equipment. It can be caused by surges in networks due to oversupply or lightning strikes, or when protective equipment is insufficient or fails.

When faced with overvoltage on networks protective systems shut down parts of the grid, potentially leading to widespread power outages.

Authorities have been scrambling to find answers after the April 28 outage cut Internet and telephone connections, halted trains, shut businesses and plunged cities into darkness across Spain and Portugal as well as briefly affecting southwestern France.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez announced the formation of an inquiry commission led by the Ecological Transition Ministry shortly after the blackout, urging residents not to speculate until detailed results were available.

He had warned that the probe’s conclusions could take several months, given the complexity of the incident.

Aagesen singled out the role of the Spanish grid operator REE and certain energy companies she did not name which disconnected their plants “inappropriately... to protect their installations.”

She also pointed to “insufficient voltage control capacity” on the system that day, due in part to a programming flaw, stressing that Spain’s grid is theoretically robust enough to handle such situations.

Due to these misjudgments “we reached a point of no return with an uncontrollable chain reaction” that could only have been controlled if steps had been taken beforehand to absorb the overvoltage problems, she added.


UK slaps new sanctions on Russia shadow fleet

Updated 33 min 37 sec ago
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UK slaps new sanctions on Russia shadow fleet

  • Security analysts say the fleet of aging vessels is used by Russia to circumvent international sanctions that ban it from selling oil
  • Hundreds of vessels have now been sanctioned by the European Union and the UK

LONDON: The UK on Tuesday tightened its sanctions on Russia’s so-called shadow fleet, slapping bans on 20 more ships and blacklisting 10 other people or bodies involved in energy and shipping.

Security analysts say the fleet of aging vessels is used by Russia to circumvent international sanctions that ban it from selling oil.

Hundreds of vessels have now been sanctioned by the European Union and the UK since Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered the invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

The UK’s new additions to its assets freeze list include the Orion Star group and Rosneft Marine (UK), both said to be significant to Russia’s energy sector, as well as the deep-sea research unit at the Russian defense ministry.

Although Russia’s economy has not collapsed under the sanctions, officials insist they are having an impact.

“Russia’s economy is slowing and the Kremlin has been forced to make increasingly painful trade-offs to support its war effort,” Downing Street said in a statement.

It claimed the sanctions imposed in the last three years “have deprived Russia of at least $450 billion.”

“By one estimate, that’s equivalent to around two more years of funding for the invasion,” it added.

The UK alone has sanctioned over 2,300 individuals, entities and ships since the start of the
invasion.

UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer said he wanted to hone the new sanctions with Britain’s other G7 partners meeting this week in Canada.

“We should take this moment to increase economic pressure and show President Putin it is in his — and Russia’s interests — to demonstrate he is serious about peace.”

With peace talks stalling, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky had hoped to press US counterpart Donald Trump to step up sanctions on Russia at the G7 summit.

But as the conflict between Iran and Israel escalated, Trump left the summit early without meeting Zelensky, saying he had “big stuff” to do in Washington. And he has proved reluctant about new sanctions.

The EU has imposed 18 rounds of sanctions on Russia.

Downing Street said “new information” showed Western were creating “significant challenges” for Russian state enterprises, including funding shortfalls, delays in major projects, and growing debt due to high interest rates.