Commercial international flights to and from India will be resumed from 15 December, the Ministry of Civil Aviation said on Friday, even as different countries started imposing restrictions on airlines flying in from countries belonging to the southern part of Africa, which saw the emergence of a new variant of the coronavirus, B.1.1.529—now known as the Omicron variant—with over 30 mutations and which may be vaccine-resistant. Scheduled international flights have been suspended in India since 23 March last year due to the Covid-19 pandemic. However, special international passenger flights have been operating since July last year under air bubble arrangements formed with 31 countries. Questions are now being raised if India will be in a position to open up on 15 December, given the current panic over the spread of B.1.1.529.
The World Health Organisation on Friday designated the B.1.1.529 as a “variant of concern” and named it Omicron. The WHO also described Omicron as “highly transmissible”.
Apart from some countries in Africa, including South Africa, the virus has been detected in Hong Kong, Belgium and Israel among passengers returning from Africa. The new Covid-19 variant B.1.1.529, which is causing an increase in new infections in South Africa, has not been found in India so far, said official sources on Friday.
The matters concerning the new coronavirus variant identified in southern Africa is a “developing story” and WHO has held a meeting on the matter, the Ministry of External Affairs said on Friday. “As regards the issue of the South African variant, this is a developing incident. We just saw a report of and briefing by WHO. I don’t have any immediate information on the steps we are taking. It is an issue more for our health authorities. This is a very developing story,” MEA spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said at the weekly briefing. He was responding to a query about the new variant labelled as B.1.1.529 by scientists.
Asian and European countries have tightened restrictions after the variant was detected in South Africa, with Singapore and Britain announcing stricter border controls and more rigorous testing. UK has banned flights from South Africa, Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Lesotho and Eswatini from Friday, and asked returning British travellers from these destinations to quarantine. Singapore has joined Britain, with its government saying that it would restrict arrivals from South Africa and countries nearby as a precaution. Japan has also decided to tighten border controls for visitors from South Africa and five other African countries, as per latest media reports. France on Friday suspended flights arriving from the southern African region for 48 hours.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) held a meeting on Friday to discuss the newly-identified Covid-19 variant. WHO spokesperson Christian Lindmeier said after the meeting that early analysis shows that this variant has a large number of mutations that require and will undergo further study. “It’ll take a few weeks for us to understand what impact this variant has. Researchers are working to understand more,” she said.
Sajid Javid, UK Health Secretary said that this variant was “highly likely” to have spread to other countries. Most of the cases in South Africa have been from its most populated province, Gauteng, of which Johannesburg is the capital city.
In Hong Kong, the variant spread during hotel quarantine of a person who had arrived from South Africa and another hotel guest who tested positive a few days later. WHO spokesperson Christian Lindmeier said that the global health organization was following up the development and that “at this point, implementing travel measures is being cautioned against, the WHO recommends that countries continue to apply a risk-based and scientific approach when implementing (curbs).”
The news of the new variant impacted the global markets amid fears that the world might witness a surge in cases and possible waves. Experts said that the new variant has a spike protein which is totally different from other variants of coronavirus. The vaccines made for coronavirus may have little impact on this new variant.
Since the start of the pandemic, about 100 sequences of the Covid variant have been reported worldwide. Talking to The Daily Guardian Nishank Shekhar Thakur, a New Delhi-based public health specialist said, “The said variant needs to be looked at very seriously. We don’t have any data available about it. Only thing we can do now is to prepare ourselves, our health infrastructure and follow Covid appropriate behaviour. In South Africa only 25% of the population is fully vaccinated, which may have resulted in the rapid spread of cases. But we need to be very vigilant.”
Speaking to a news agency, Dr Atul Gogia, senior consultant, Department of Medicine, Sir Gangaram Hospital said, “This virus is known to mutate and as long this virus is multiplying in the population there is a chance of it mutating. The variant that has been found in certain parts of the world is the latest variant whose mutant capacity is more than the earlier variants. As the virus mutates there is an apprehension that it may escape our immune response. We need to see whether this variant causes a more severe disease or is more contagious. However, we do not need to panic. At the same time we cannot lower our guard.”