World scrambles to contain new Covid-19 ‘variant of concern’

FILE – People line up to get on an overseas flight at OR Tambo International Airport in Johannesburg, South Africa, Nov. 26, 2021. As the world grapples with the emergence of the new highly transmissible variant of COVID-19, worried scientists in South Africa — where omicron was first identified — are scrambling to combat its lightning spread across the country. (AP Photo/Jerome Delay, File)

New restrictions are being imposed on travel from countries in southern Africa as the world scrambles to contain a new variant of coronavirus that has the potential to be more resistant to the protection offered by vaccines.

A host of countries, including Australia, Brazil, Canada, Iran, Japan, Thailand and the US, joined others, including the European Union and the UK, in imposing restrictions on southern African countries in response to warnings over the transmissibility of the new Omicron variant — against the advice of the World Health Organisation.