Simon Ateba is Chief White House Correspondent for Today News Africa covering President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, U.S. government, UN, IMF, World Bank and other financial and international institutions in Washington and New York.
United States Vice President Kamala D. Harris said on Saturday that the administration was taking ‘every precaution’ to protect Americans against the new coronavirus variant named Omicron by a World Health Organization Technical Advisory Group on Friday.
Omicron was first detected in Botswana on November 11 and was reported to the World Health Organization by South Africa on November 24 after it began spreading rapidly in Gauteng province, a predominantly urban area containing the cities of Johannesburg and Pretoria, and may be present in other provinces.
Omicron has worried scientists and politicians and led to panic followed by imposition of travel restrictions on several southern African countries.
Harris, accompanied by second gentleman Doug Emhoff, stopped briefly to gaggle with reporters before leaving Washington DC’s Downtown Holiday Market where they had gone for some shopping. The then-vice-president-elect Harris and Emhoff visited the market in 2020, accompanied by DC Mayor Muriel Bowser.
The Vice President said she had been briefed on the new COVID-19 variant, adding that the administration will be taking “every precaution” it can to protect Americans against the highly transmissible variant.
Harris said she “could not stress enough” that Americans who have not been vaccinated should get a shot and those who have should go for booster shots.
“They are safe they are free and they will save your life,” She said said, adding that there was no further travel restrictions at this point, “but as of now, we’ve done what we believe is necessary.”
She also talked about the importance of small businesses, calling them “the lifeblood of the community” and an “economic engine.”
“You’re my hero,” one woman shouted as she left at about 2:18 p.m.
The Vice President and the Second Gentleman purchased calendar Cashews, Carmel popcorn, milk chocolates from The Capital Candy JarAn assortment of spices Maps from Terratorie of San Francisco and Los Angeles candles from Smell of Love Candles.
Joining the VP and Second Gentleman were Cole Emhoff and Greenley Littlejohn.
Reporters said market goers who became aware of her presence shouted, including a ‘we love you’ as she arrived.
President Biden briefed also
The White House said on Saturday that U.S. President Joseph R. Biden Jr. has been briefed on the latest update on Omicron COVID-19 variant.
“The President has been briefed on the latest on Omicron. At the same time, senior health officials and the COVID response team have been monitoring the latest updates on Omicron and in regular touch with health officials around the world,” the White House said in a brief statement.
The Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, Dr. Antony Fauci, said on Saturday that he “would not be surprised” Omicron has already arrived in the United States although it has not been detected in the U.S. yet.
“We have not detected it yet, but when you have a virus that is showing this degree of transmissibility and you’re already having travel-related cases that they’ve noted in Israel and Belgium and other places, when you have a virus like this, it almost invariably is ultimately going to go essentially all over,” Fauci said during an interview on the “Today” show on Saturday.
The Chief Executive Officer of Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, Dr. Seth Berkley, asserted on Saturday that new variants of COVID-19 will continue to emerge “as long as large portions of the world’s population are unvaccinated.”
Dr. Berkley was reacting to the emergence of Omicron, the new variant first identified in Botswana on November 11 and found in several countries around the world, including in South Africa where it is spreading rapidly in Gauteng province, a predominantly urban area containing the cities of Johannesburg and Pretoria, and may be present in other provinces. Omicron has worried scientists and politicians and led to panic, including travel restrictions.
The United States, the European Union and several other countries announced travel restrictions on several southern African nations where the variant has been identified.
In his brief statement sent to Today News Africa on Saturday, Dr. Berkley argued that investment should be scaled up to vaccinate more people in the world to end the current pandemic.
“While we still need to know more about Omicron, we do know that as long as large portions of the world’s population are unvaccinated, variants will continue to appear, and the pandemic will continue to be prolonged,” he said. “We will only prevent variants from emerging if we are able to protect all of the world’s population, not just the wealthy parts. The world needs to work together to ensure equitable access to vaccines, now.”
He added, “This means manufacturers and donors providing the visibility for countries to roll out the largest national immunization programmes in their history, and it means recipient countries using all resources available to get safe and effective vaccines to those that need them. No-one is safe until everyone is safe.”
Linda Geddes, a writer at Gavi explains in an opinion piece that Omicron “contains a high number of mutations within its spike protein, some of which may help the virus to evade vaccine-induced immune protection.”
“Although the full implications of the discovery are currently unclear, scientists have emphasised the need for continued surveillance, and stressed that protective measures such as social distancing, mask-wearing and vaccination (where available) will help to limit its spread,” Geddes writes.
Geddes adds, “The variant, named B.1.1.529, was first detected in Botswana on 11 November, although other cases have since been identified in South Africa and in a patient who travelled to Hong Kong from South Africa. In a statement released on 25 November, South Africa’s Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) said that 22 positive cases had been identified so far, with further genome sequencing currently taking place that might identify others.
“According to Prof Tulio de Oliveira, Director of the KwaZulu-Natal Research Innovation and Sequencing Platform at South Africa’s University of KwaZulu-Natal, there are early signs from diagnostic laboratories that the new variant has rapidly increased in Gauteng province, a predominantly urban area containing the cities of Johannesburg and Pretoria, and may be present in other provinces.”
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