(NEW YORK) — As the COVID-19 pandemic has swept the globe, more than 5.2 million people have died from the disease worldwide, including over 776,000 Americans, according to real-time data compiled by Johns Hopkins University’s Center for Systems Science and Engineering.
Just 59.1% of the population in the United States is fully vaccinated against COVID-19, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Here’s how the news is developing. All times Eastern:
Nov 29, 4:44 am
WHO says overall global risk of omicron variant is ‘very high’
The World Health Organization has assessed the overall global risk related to a newly discovered variant of the novel coronavirus as “very high.”
In a technical brief published Sunday, the WHO explained that omicron, or B.1.1.529, “is a highly divergent variant with a high number of mutations,” some of which it said “are concerning and may be associated with immune escape potential and higher transmissibility.”
“Given mutations that may confer immune escape potential and possibly transmissibility advantage, the likelihood of potential further spread of Omicron at the global level is high,” the WHO concluded in a risk assessment. “Depending on these characteristics, there could be future surges of COVID-19, which could have severe consequences, depending on a number of factors including where surges may take place.”
The variant was first identified in southern Africa last week and has quickly spread to several countries across the globe, sparking new travel restrictions and shaking financial markets. On Friday, the WHO officially named the variant omicron and designated it as a “variant of concern.” Both the WHO and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention say that variants of concern have shown to spread more easily than others and cause more severe disease.
While omicron has not yet been detected in the United States, Dr. Anthony Fauci, the government’s top infectious diseases expert, told ABC News on Sunday that the variant will “inevitably” arrive.
“The question is,” he added, “will we be prepared for it?”
(NEW YORK) — As the COVID-19 pandemic has swept the globe, more than 5.2 million people have died from the disease worldwide, including over 776,000 Americans, according to real-time data compiled by Johns Hopkins University’s Center for Systems Science and Engineering.
Just 59.1% of the population in the United States is fully vaccinated against COVID-19, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Here’s how the news is developing. All times Eastern:
Nov 29, 10:17 am
Omicron completely evading vaccines is ‘extremely unlikely’: Dr. Ashish Jha
Dr. Ashish Jha, dean of Brown University School of Public Health, told TODAY he assumes omicron is already in the U.S. and predicts it’ll be identified in the next few days.
But Jha said he believes it’s “extremely unlikely” that omicron would completely evade vaccines.
“I think that our vaccines will hold up — the question is … is it a little bit less effective? A lot less effective? We will have that data — both laboratory data and clinical data — in the next week or two at the most,” he said.
“I wouldn’t make any major changes to plans” for the holidays yet, he continued. “I would just wait and make sure you’re vaccinated and everybody around you is vaccinated.”
“If you’re fully vaccinated — and especially if you’re boosted — you’re going to have more protection against this variant,” Jha said.
-ABC News’ Cheyenne Haslett
Nov 29, 9:42 am
Portugal finds 13 cases of omicron variant among Lisbon soccer club
Portuguese health authorities on Monday confirmed 13 cases of the omicron variant among professional soccer players.
The Ricardo Jorge National Health Institute said the players who tested positive are all members of the Lisbon-based Belenenses SAD soccer club and that one of them had recently traveled to southern Africa, where the omicron variant was first identified last week.
The institute is investigating whether this is one of the first reported instances of local transmission of the new coronavirus variant outside of southern Africa, where most of the cases have been recorded so far.
All 13 players have been placed in quarantine and those who have been in contact with them were ordered to isolate, regardless of their vaccination status or their exposure to possible contagion. The players and their close contacts will be regularly tested for COVID-19, the institute said.
-ABC News’ Aicha El Hammar Castano
Nov 29, 9:05 am
Moderna’s chief medical officer talks omicron variant
Moderna’s chief medical officer, Dr. Paul Burton, said the omicron variant probably emerged around mid-October in southern Africa.
“How transmissible is it? We think it’s probably quite transmissible. But how severe is the disease it causes? We don’t know the answer to that question yet,” Burton told ABC News’ Amy Robach in an interview Monday on Good Morning America.
“While we think that vaccine effectiveness may come down based on the mutations seen in this virus … we should be able to get antibodies up” with the booster shot, Burton said.
“We’ll know from tests in the next couple of weeks how effective the vaccines are against this variant,” he added.
Nov 29, 8:15 am
Omicron variant will ‘spread widely,’ Fauci warns
Dr. Anthony Fauci, the U.S. government’s top infectious diseases expert, is urging Americans who have been vaccinated against COVID-19 and are eligible to get a booster shot to do so now, in anticipation of the omicron variant spreading “widely.”
So far, there are no known confirmed cases of the new variant in the United States, according to Fauci, who is the chief medical adviser to U.S. President Joe Biden.
“But obviously, we’re on high alert,” Fauci told ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos in an interview Monday on Good Morning America.
“It’s inevitable that, sooner or later, it’s going to spread widely because it has at least the molecular characteristics of being highly transmissible,” he added, “even though there are a lot of things about it that we do not know but will be able to ascertain in the next week or two.”
Fauci, who is also the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said omicron clearly has a “transmissibility advantage,” based on what scientists have seen in southern Africa, where the variant was first identified last week.
“But the extent of that, again, still needs to be worked out,” he noted. “We’ll know soon.”
Fauci said the severity of illness that the omicron variant can inflict remains unclear, despite early reports that some patients had mild symptoms.
Although there is still so much unknown about the new variant, Fauci said it’s clear that vaccinated individuals, particularly those who have received booster doses, fare better against COVID-19 than their unvaccinated counterparts.
“So we don’t know exactly what’s going on with this new variant,” he said, “but I would assume — and I think it’s a reasonable assumption — that when you get vaccinated and boosted and your [antibody] level goes way up, you’re going to have some degree of protection, at least against severe disease.”
Both Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna booster shots have been authorized for all adults in the United States. Anyone over the age of 18 can get a booster dose at least six months after they received their second dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna vaccines, or at least two months after they got their single dose of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine.
“I would strongly suggest you get boosted now and not wait for the next iteration of [the vaccine], which we may not even need,” Fauci said. “The pharmaceutical companies are preparing to make a specific booster for [omicron], but we may not need that.”
Nov 29, 4:44 am
WHO says overall global risk of omicron variant is ‘very high’
The World Health Organization has assessed the overall global risk related to a newly discovered variant of the novel coronavirus as “very high.”
In a technical brief published Sunday, the WHO explained that omicron, or B.1.1.529, “is a highly divergent variant with a high number of mutations,” some of which it said “are concerning and may be associated with immune escape potential and higher transmissibility.”
“Given mutations that may confer immune escape potential and possibly transmissibility advantage, the likelihood of potential further spread of Omicron at the global level is high,” the WHO concluded in a risk assessment. “Depending on these characteristics, there could be future surges of COVID-19, which could have severe consequences, depending on a number of factors including where surges may take place.”
The variant was first identified in southern Africa last week and has quickly spread to several countries across the globe, sparking new travel restrictions and shaking financial markets. On Friday, the WHO officially named the variant omicron and designated it as a “variant of concern.” Both the WHO and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention say that variants of concern have shown to spread more easily than others and cause more severe disease.
While omicron has not yet been detected in the United States, Dr. Anthony Fauci, the government’s top infectious diseases expert, told ABC News on Sunday that the variant will “inevitably” arrive.
“The question is,” he added, “will we be prepared for it?”
(PHILADELPHIA) — A “thriving” Temple University student months away from graduating has been gunned down near the school’s Philadelphia campus.
Samuel Collington, a 21-year-old senior, was shot Sunday afternoon, the university said, becoming one of more than 500 people killed in Philadelphia this year.
He was taken to Temple University Hospital where he was pronounced dead less than 30 minutes later from gunshot wounds to the chest and back, Philadelphia police said. No arrests have been made, police said.
Charlie Leone, the university’s executive director of Public Safety, called Collington “a bright and thriving political science student” who “already was succeeding in his field, interning as a Democracy Fellow with the city.”
He was set to graduate this spring.
“This is a true tragedy in every sense of the word,” Leone said in a statement Sunday, adding that Collington’s slaying “further highlights the senseless gun violence that continues to grip the city of Philadelphia.”
Last week Philadelphia reached 500 homicides for the year, tying the record set in 1990 for the sixth-largest city in the country.
Philadelphia Police Commissioner Danielle Outlaw said in a statement, “We will continue to work with our local, state, and federal partners and other stakeholders to get ahead of the violent crime that is plaguing our beautiful communities. We remain committed to proactively patrolling neighborhoods and encourage community members to continue to work alongside the police.”
Outlaw told ABC News chief justice correspondent Pierre Thomas earlier this month that Philadelphia has a gun culture problem.
“We’re on pace to get 6,000 illegal crime guns off the street this year; we’ve made a record number of arrests for carrying guns illegally,” she said. “We’re dealing with a culture here, there’s a culture of violence that we are trying to break through.”
Leone said Temple senior officials spoke with Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney’s office on Sunday. He said the university is “intensifying our work with the city, community groups and the Philadelphia Police Department to further enhance safety in and around the Temple community.”
(NEW YORK) — While the new omicron variant of the COVID-19 virus has not yet been detected in the United States, it will “inevitably” arrive, Dr. Anthony Fauci said Sunday.
“We all know when you have a virus that has already gone to multiple countries, inevitably it will be here,” Fauci told ABC’s This Week anchor George Stephanopoulos. “The question is, will we be prepared for it?”
The omicron variant, named after the 15th letter of the Greek alphabet, was first detected last week in Botswana, officials said. Since then, cases of the new variant have been found in South Africa, Germany, Belgium and Hong Kong.
Pressed by Stephanopoulos on whether the omicron variant is as or more transmissible than the delta variant and other mutations that have swept the globe, Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and the White House chief medical adviser, said, “It appears to be.”
“It has a bunch of mutations,” Fauci said, including “a disturbingly large number of mutations in the spike protein, which is the business end of the virus.”
“Inevitably, it will be here. The question is will we be prepared for it?”
Fauci’s comments came one day before the United States plans to impose a travel ban on most travelers from eight southern African countries.
When asked by Stephanopoulos whether the travel ban will make a difference, Fauci said, “It will slow things down.”
“Travel bans, when you have a highly transmissible virus, never completely … prevent it from coming into the country. No way that’s going to happen,” Fauci said. “But what you can do is you can delay it enough to get us better prepared. And that’s the thing that people need to understand.”
He cautioned that traveling during the pandemic is “always risky,” but if Americans have to travel, he recommended they be vaccinated and to wear a mask on flights and in airports, which he described as “one of the most congregate settings you can imagine.”
The chief medical adviser said early signs “strongly suggest” that the variant may be more transmissible and might evade protections from monoclonal antibodies and “perhaps even antibodies that are induced by vaccine.”
Dr. Anthony Fauci tells @GStephanopoulos that the omicron variant of COVID-19 “appears” to be more transmissible than other variants, “might evade some of the protection of monoclonal antibodies and…perhaps even antibodies that are induced by vaccine.” https://t.co/ETIov84eDopic.twitter.com/gzkaQEHZj6
In South Africa, cases of new COVID-19 infections have been heavily weighted toward the omicron variant, Fauci said, so, “you have to presume that it has a good degree of transmissibility advantage.”
However, Fauci noted that a relatively small proportion of the population of South Africa is vaccinated. According to Johns Hopkins University, just over 24% of people in South Africa is fully vaccinated, compared to 60% of the U.S. population.
“So, you’ve got to take that into the equation when you’re trying to figure out where this virus is really going and what its impact is going to be,” Fauci said.
Asked by Stephanopoulos if omicron causes more severe disease, Fauci said that currently remains a mystery.
He said U.S. scientists spoke to their counterparts in South Africa on Friday and plan to meet with them again later Sunday “to try and find out if the cases they have identified that clearly are caused by this variant, what is the level of severity in that.”
“Hopefully, it will be light,” Fauci said.
Pressed by @GStephanopoulos on whether vaccines can fight omicron variant, Dr. Fauci says “I don’t think there’s any possibility that this could completely evade any protection by vaccine. It may diminish it a bit, but that’s the reason why you boost.” https://t.co/RB4JDN9jsrpic.twitter.com/rE9IxqwtL3
Stephanopoulos also pressed Fauci on how susceptible vaccinated people are to the new variant, asking what is known about how resistant omicron is to the currently available vaccines.
Fauci said studies and experiments are already underway to figure out how strong the vaccines are against omicron and estimated it will take about two weeks before scientists get the answers.
“The way you find that out is you get the virus and you put it either as a whole virus or as what we call a pseudovirus, and you take antibodies or serum from people who have been vaccinated, and you determine if those antibodies can neutralize the virus,” Fauci said.
The chief medical adviser said the best way for Americans to prepare for the omicron variant is to be vaccinated, to get a booster shot as soon as they are eligible, and to keep adhering to other protective recommendations such as wearing masks and practicing social distancing.
“We are on the lookout for this. The CDC has a good surveillance system,” Fauci said. “So, if and when — and it is going to be when — it comes here, hopefully, we will be ready for it by enhancing our capabilities via the vaccine, masking, all the things that we do and should be doing.”
Asked for guidance about traveling outside of the country right now, Dr. Anthony Fauci tells @GStephanopoulos that travelers should get vaccinated and “be prudent” about wearing masks in indoor settings like airports. https://t.co/Z7XtvfKbzNpic.twitter.com/QY6dTqclTC
When Stephanopoulos broached the possibility of returning to the lockdowns due to the new variant, Fauci said it’s “really too early to say.”
“We just really need to, as I’ve said so often, prepare for the worst,” Fauci said. “It may not be that we’re going to have to go the route that people are saying. We don’t know a lot about this virus. So, we want to prepare as best we can, but it may turn out that this preparation, although important, may not necessarily push us to the next level.”
He added, “Let’s see what the information that we’re getting in real-time tells us, and we’ll make decisions based on the science and the evidence, the way we always do.”
(SAN FRANCISCO) — For any mom who’s ever been asked if they “enjoyed their vacation” during maternity leave, Kristen Cuneo has the perfect reply.
Cuneo, who works for a technology company in the San Francisco Bay area, created a data visualization showing as data points every bottle feed, breastfeed and diaper change she completed in the first seven weeks after giving birth to her daughter, Autumn, in January.
Just a few seconds into the visualization, the data points take up an entire screen.
“Objectively, it’s a lot, and every data point took time, ranging from five minutes for a diaper change to 30 minutes for a feeding, on average,” said Cuneo, presenting the data to coworkers. “The real kicker is when it happens, 24 hours a day.”
Cuneo’s presentation was shared on TikTok by her husband, Michael DiBenigno, co-founder of Flow Immersive, a California-based company that focuses on data storytelling.
It quickly went viral, with hundreds of thousands of likes and over 2,000 comments.
“And that does not include laundry, bathing, well baby checkups, getting baby to sleep, fussy baby or the fact that baby needs to be held constantly,” wrote one commenter.
“All while recovering from a major medical procedure! Moms of newborns are absolutely amazing,” wrote another commenter.
Another commenter alluded to the fact that there is currently no federal paid leave in the United States, writing, “This woman needs to be in front of Congress.”
Only 27% of private industry workers currently have access to paid family leave, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Cuneo told “Good Morning America” she considers herself lucky to have had a “very generous” five months of maternity leave.
She said she also feels grateful that her presentation has helped so many people “feel so seen and heard.”
“It is a shared experience, even though it is hard,” Cuneo said of being a new parent. “The response that we’ve gotten has been completely mind-boggling, that so many people can have this experience, and yet something like this could resonate so powerfully for them whether or not they’re currently raising a child or maybe they did 20 years ago.”
Cuneo and DiBenigno created the presentation by using data compiled in a baby habit-tracking app they started using when Autumn was a newborn.
“We had heard over and over that being a new parent, you never sleep, but it’s hard to understand what that really felt like,” said DiBenigno. “It wasn’t until we saw the data points and put together this visualization that we were like, ‘Wow, you see that continual, never-ending cycle of the mundane, routine labor of all these things that are just necessary.'”
(NEW YORK) — As the COVID-19 pandemic has swept the globe, more than 5.1 million people have died from the disease worldwide, including over 775,000 Americans, according to real-time data compiled by Johns Hopkins University’s Center for Systems Science and Engineering.
Just 59.1% of the population in the United States is fully vaccinated against COVID-19, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Here’s how the new is developing. All times Eastern:
Nov 27, 3:35 pm
South Africa says it’s being ‘punished’
South Africa has complained it is being punished for discovering the new variant
A statement by the South African International Relations & Cooperation Department criticized the travel bans and said the bans were “akin to punishing South Africa for its advanced genomic sequencing and the ability to detect new variants quicker.”
“Excellent science should be applauded and not punished. The global community needs collaboration and partnerships in the management of the COVID-19 pandemic,” the statement from the South African goverment also read.
“A combination of South Africa’s capacity to test and it’s ramped-up vaccination programme, backed up by world class scientific community, should give our global partners the comfort that we are doing as well as they are in managing the pandemic. South Africa follows and enforces globally recognised COVID-19 health protocols on travel. No infected individuals are permitted to leave the country,” the statement continued.
South Africa’s Minister of International Relations and Cooperation, Naledi Pandor said: “Whilst we respect the right of all countries to take the necessary precautionary measures to protect their citizens, we need to remember that this pandemic requires collaboration and sharing of expertise. Our immediate concern is the damage that these restrictions are causing to families, the travel and tourism industries and business.”
South Africa has already started engaging countries that have imposed travel bans with the view to persuade them to reconsider.
Nov 27, 3:11 pm
2 confirmed omicron cases in Germany
Two cases of the new omicron COVID-19 variant have been confirmed in Germany on Saturday.
The cases were confirmed in Bavaria and involve two poeple who arrived in Munich on Nov. 24 on a flight from South Africa, the Bavarian Ministry of Health and Care said.
Both travelers had returned to Bavaria on Wednesday after an extended stay in South Africa. They had been in domestic isolation since Nov. 25 after testing positive for PCR.
After reporting on the new variant, the two individuals had proactively arranged for themselves to be tested for the variant, a ministry spokeswoman said. The PCR test was positive in both of them, she said. The samples were further tested today at the Max von Pettenkofer Institute in Munich using a variant-specific PCR test, which detected the highly contagious omicron variant.
In the coming week, an additional whole genome sequencing should be carried out, said Munich virologist Oliver Keppler. However, according to Keppler, the PCR procedure carried out today “allows a clear differentiation from other SARS-CoV-2 variants.” Together with the travel history, the detection of omicron can be considered “doubtless,” he said.
The Bavarian Health Ministry urged passengers who arrived from South Africa on the same flight on Nov. 24 to report immediately to their local health department. All persons who traveled from South Africa in the past 14 days should immediately reduce their contacts, take a PCR test indicating their travel history and contact the health office immediately, the ministry said, adding: “Do everything to prevent spread.”
Moreover, all persons entering southern Africa from areas classified by the Robert Koch Institute as virus-variant areas must be quarantined for 14 days — this also applies regardless of vaccination status.
“We must do everything we can to prevent the spread of the new variant in the Free State and in Germany,” said a ministry spokeswoman in Munich. It is not yet clear whether the new variant is actually more contagious and leads to more hospitalizations, she said. “Until the science is clearer, however, we must exercise caution,” the spokeswoman stressed.
Earlier, Hesse’s Social Affairs Minister Kai Klose of the Green Party announced another suspected case. According to the report, several mutations typical for this variant were found in a traveler returning from South Africa. The fully vaccinated person had reportedly entered the country via Frankfurt Airport on Nov. 21 and developed symptoms over the course of the week. An exact result is expected in this case on Monday.
-ABC News’ Rashid Haddou
Nov 27, 2:56 pm
US will “take it one step at a time” on omicron: Harris
Vice President Kamala Harris says she has been briefed on the omicron variant and when asked if there will be any additional travel restrictions, she said they will be “taking it one step at a time.”
Harris said that for now, the administration believes they’ve done “what we believe is necessary,” and they will “take every precaution” to protect Americans.
-ABC News’ Justin Gomez
Nov 27, 1:11 pm
England sets new measures in response to omicron
English Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced new tightened measures Saturday in response to the discovery of omicron in the UK. The measures include:
-All international arrivals entering England must take a Day 2 PCR test and self-isolate until they receive a negative result.
-All contacts of suspected omicron cases must self-isolate for 10 days, regardless of their vaccination status.
-Face coverings will become compulsory on public transport and in shops.
The UK government had also said that omicron was found in Chelmsford, but said Saturday that that information was incorrect and that the variant had been found in Brentwood.
A spokesperson for Essex County Council said: “We can confirm that a single case involving the new Covid-19 Variant of Concern (B 1.1.529) , Omicron, has been identified in Brentwood. This is linked to a single case from Nottingham involving international travel to South Africa.”
“We are working with regional and local public health officers who are assessing the situation. All close contacts of these individuals will be followed up and requested to isolate and get tested,” the spokesperson said in a Twitter thread.
“The individuals who have so far tested positive, as well as all members of their households, are being re-tested and have been told to self-isolate while contact tracing is underway …. While this work takes place, it is important that everyone takes sensible precautions — get a PCR test if you have symptoms, isolate when asked, wear a face covering in crowded and enclosed spaces, ventilate rooms, get your vaccine and boosters as soon as you can,” the spokesperson added.
-ABC News’ Rashid Haddou
Nov 27, 10:53 am
2 cases of new variant, omicron, found in England
Two cases of the newly discovered variant, omicron, were detected in the UK — in Chelmsford and Nottingham — according to the UK Health Secretary, Sajid Javid.
The cases are linked to South Africa. Javid said four more African countries were added to the UK’s Travel Red List : Malawi, Mozambique, Zambia and Angola. Also currently on the list are Botswana, Eswatini, Lesotho, Namibia, South Africa and Zimbabwe.
-ABC News’ Rashid Haddou
Nov 27, 8:17 am
‘Wouldn’t be surprised’ if omicron already in US: Fauci
Chief medical adviser to the president, Dr. Anthony Fauci, said he “wouldn’t be surprised” if the new COVID-19 variant omicron was already in the United States, on NBC Saturday morning.
“You know, I would not be surprised if it is. 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.
“Its ability to infect people who have recovered from infection and even people who have been vaccinated makes us say this is something you have to pay really close attention to and be prepared for something that’s serious. It may not turn out that way, but you really want to be ahead of it,” Fauci also said.
-ABC News’ Ahmad Hemingway
Nov 27, 8:08 am
61 travelers from South Africa to Netherlands test positive, getting tested for omicron
Sixty-one people who traveled from South Africa to the Netherlands have tested positive for COVID-19 and will be tested for the newly discovered COVID variant omicron, The Associated Press reported.
Two flights from Johannesburg and Cape Town arrived in the Netherlands Friday, just after the Dutch government, along with other countries, imposed a ban on southern African nations with the discovery of omicron, according to the AP.
Those who tested positive must remain in quarantine for seven days if they have symptoms and five days if they do not.
-ABC News’ Ahmad Hemingway
Nov 26, 9:50 pm
CDC says it’s monitoring omicron following WHO guidance
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said in a statement Friday that it is “following the details of this new variant,” omicron, first reported to the World Health Organization by South Africa.
“We are grateful to the South African government and its scientists who have openly communicated with the global scientific community and continue to share information about this variant with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and CDC,” the CDC said, adding that it is continuing to learn more about the variant and monitor its path.
No cases of omicron have been identified in the U.S. to date, but on Friday the WHO classified the new variant as a “variant of concern.”
“CDC is continuously monitoring variants and the U.S. variant surveillance system has reliably detected new variants in this country,” the CDC said. “We expect Omicron to be identified quickly, if it emerges in the U.S.”
The CDC recommends that people traveling to the U.S. continue to follow its guidance for traveling.
Nov 26, 11:22 am
Fauci says newly detected variant could be a ‘red flag’
U.S. and South African scientists will address the new B.1.1.529 variant that has been reported in Europe and Africa, Dr. Anthony Fauci said Friday.
In an interview with CNN, Fauci said there is no indication the variant is in the U.S. but “anything is possible.”
“There’s a lot of travel, you never know exactly where it is,” Fauci said.
Scientists are still trying to determine if the variant can evade vaccines and is more transmissible.
“So right now you’re talking about sort of a red flag that this might be an issue, but we don’t know,” Fauci said.
The U.S. will evaluate the variant’s scientific data and decide if prevention measures such as travel bans are necessary, he noted.
“You’re prepared to do everything you need to do to protect the American public. But you want to make sure there’s a basis for doing that. And that’s what we’re doing right now,” Fauci said.
Nov 26, 10:08 am
Belgium confirms 1st European case of new variant
Belgium’s health department has confirmed its first case of the new B.1.1.529 variant.
The patient, a woman, had traveled to Belgium from Egypt via Istanbul. She developed symptoms 11 days after her return and was not vaccinated. Her family members have tested negative for COVID and the woman is not in a life-threatening condition, officials said.
Hong Kong has two confirmed cases and Israel has one other confirmed case of the B.1.1.529 variant. Several cases have been reported in South Africa and Botswana.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on Friday issued a formal recommendation for countries in the 27 nation EU bloc to suspend travel with countries affected by the new variant.
Nov 26, 4:04 am
EU to propose travel ban on southern Africa over new variant
The European Union’s executive branch said Friday that it wants to suspend air travel to the bloc from southern Africa due to concerns over a newly identified variant of the novel coronavirus.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen made the announcement via Twitter, saying a proposal “to activate the emergency brake to stop air travel from the Southern Africa region” will be made “in close coordination” with EU member states.
The variant, called B.1.1.529, was first detected in South Africa earlier this week and has quickly spread. At least 22 cases have been confirmed in the country so far, according to South Africa’s National Institute for Communicable Diseases. South African scientist Tulio de Oliveira told reporters Thursday that the new variant carries “a very high number of mutations,” but it’s unclear whether it will limit the effectiveness of vaccines.
Several cases of B.1.1.529 have since been confirmed in neighboring Botswana as well as in Hong Kong and Israel. The cases detected in Hong Kong and Israel were linked to travelers who had arrived from southern Africa.
The World Health Organization will meet on Friday to assess B.1.1.529 and determine whether it should be designated a variant “of interest” or “of concern.”
Nov 25, 8:01 pm
UK issues travel restrictions due to concerns over new variant
The United Kingdom announced Thursday new travel restrictions for six countries over concerns about a new variant of the novel coronavirus that emerged in South Africa.
The variant, known as B.1.1.529, has also been found in Botswana and Hong Kong in travelers from southern Africa. It has not yet been detected in the U.K., officials said.
“The early indications we have of this variant is that it may be more transmissible than the delta variant, and the vaccines that we currently have may be less effective against it,” U.K. Health Secretary Sajid Javid said during a briefing Thursday.
Starting midday on Friday, all flights from six southern African countries — South Africa, Namibia, Lesotho, Eswatini, Zimbabwe and Botswana — will be temporarily suspended, and travelers entering the U.K. from those countries after 4 a.m. on Sunday must quarantine in a government-approved hotel for 10 days.
Currently, B.1.1.529 is not designated by the World Health Organization as a variant “of concern” or “of interest.” So far, 22 cases have been confirmed in South Africa, according to the country’s National Institute for Communicable Diseases.
The WHO’s technical working group is scheduled to meet Friday to assess the new variant and may decide whether to give it a name from the Greek alphabet, based on its naming system for variants of concern and variants of interest.
The virus evolves as it spreads and many new variants, including those with worrying mutations, often just die out. Scientists monitor for possible changes that could be more transmissible or deadly, but sorting out whether new variants will have a public health impact can take time.
Nov 25, 10:18 am
Arizona hospital enters ‘crisis care’ operating mode
The Copper Queen Community Hospital in Bisbee, Arizona, is “operating in crisis care” due to the latest surge of COVID-19 cases in the state, local ABC affiliate KNXV reported.
The hospital only had 13 beds available and was “really struggling,” according to the Arizona Department of Health Services.
The state reported its 84,813th COVID-19 hospitalization on Tuesday, according to health department data. Arizona reported more than 4,000 new COVID-19 cases on Wednesday.
(JOQUICINGO, Mexico) — At least 19 people are dead and dozens more injured after a bus crash in central Mexico Friday.
The accident occurred on a highway in Joquicingo, a township in the State of Mexico that’s approximately 45 miles southwest of Mexico City.
A tour bus heading to a religious site in the State of Mexico crashed into a building after the brakes went out, the State of Mexico’s Ministry of Health said in a statement.
Officials said 19 people were reported dead and 32 injured following the crash.
Six people, including two minors, were flown to a hospital in Toluca, while others were transported to several hospitals in the region, officials said. Those injured included multiple women and children, with injuries ranging from broken bones to head trauma, according to the Ministry of Health.
Multiple agencies responded to the site of the crash, including the Red Cross and the Emergency Service of the State of Mexico.
Alfredo Del Mazo, the governor of the State of Mexico, said in a statement on Twitter that he has instructed the heads of the Civil Protection, Security, Rescue and Health agencies to support the impacted families.
Officials said the bus was with the tourism company Turismo Tejeda and was heading from the municipality of Sahuayo, Michoacán, and bound for the Santuario del Señor de Chalma, a place of worship that is a Christian pilgrimage site.
(LOS ANGELES) — Several mall shootings and flash mob robbery sprees cast a pall on Black Friday, one of the busiest shopping days of the year.
Three people were shot, including a 10-year-old, and another three suffered non-life-threatening injuries during the subsequent evacuation when gunfire broke out at Southpoint Mall in Durham, North Carolina, Friday afternoon, police said.
The child and another male shooting victim sustained non-life-threatening injuries, while a man was in critical condition due to gunshot wounds as of Saturday afternoon, police said.
One person was in custody, while others involved in the shooting fled the scene in what did not appear to be a random incident, according to the Durham Police Department. No charges had been filed as of Saturday afternoon.
People started running and screaming after hearing multiple gunshots after 3 p.m. local time, shoppers said.
“There were people being trampled, going up and down the escalator,” Aleaha Marr, who was shopping with a friend at the time of the shooting, told ABC Raleigh station WTVD.
One person suffered a gunshot wound after a shooting at Tacoma Mall in Washington Friday evening, authorities said.
The incident occurred shortly after 7 p.m. local time when a dispute near the food court escalated to gunfire, Tacoma Police Department spokesperson Gary Wurges told reporters.
The condition of the shooting victim was unknown at the time. Nobody was in custody, and there were no leads on suspects in the hours immediately after the shooting, police said.
Shoppers recounted the panic after gunfire broke out.
“We were about to get up and I hear about six shots or something,” Daisey Dockter, who was finishing a meal at the food court at the time of the shooting, told ABC Seattle affiliate KOMO. “We all just start running toward the door. It’s a huge mob of people. Everyone’s kind of pushing.”
The mall was evacuated and secured following the incident. Several stores started going on lockdown and served as places for people to hide, KOMO reported.
“Our doors were locked,” Peyton Comstock, who works at BJ’s Restaurant and Brewhouse, told the station. “Nobody could come in. We took in people obviously that were scared. There was a poor mom and daughter. She was so terrified. I felt so bad. [She was] hyperventilating.”
Several stores also reportedly saw “smash-and-grab” thefts on Black Friday.
The Los Angeles Police Department went on a city-wide tactical alert Friday night “due to increased robberies,” authorities said.
The alert followed a robbery at the Bottega Veneta store in the Melrose area, where an unknown amount of items were reportedly taken by a large group of people, according to ABC Los Angeles station KABC.
In Lakewood, a group of about eight people stole tools from a Home Depot just before 8 p.m. local time Friday, according to the L.A. County Sheriff’s Department. The items, which included hammers, sledgehammers and crowbars, amounted to around $400, authorities said.
The incidents follow reports of smash-and-grab thefts that occurred earlier this week at the Beverly Center and Topanga Mall.
The LAPD stepped up patrols in major shopping districts with the help of California Highway Patrol units in the wake of the robberies, Chief Michel Moore told KABC Wednesday.
“We know that when police officers are visible, when they’re in our neighborhoods, that we have safer neighborhoods, we have better interactions and we just overall are just a more safer city,” Moore told the station.
Another flash mob theft occurred in Minnesota Friday night, when a group of as many as 30 swarmed a Best Buy in south metro Minneapolis, authorities said.
The incident occurred after 8 p.m. local time, when the group allegedly stole electronics and fled before police arrived, the Burnsville Police Department said.
So far, no arrests have been made, and it’s unclear how much merchandise was stolen, police said.
(NASHVILLE, Tenn.) — Three people were killed and four injured in a shooting at an apartment in Nashville, Tennessee, Friday night, police said.
The incident happened around 9:45 p.m. local time and “claimed the lives of 3 young men,” the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department said on Twitter.
Four other people inside the apartment sustained non-life-threatening injuries in the shooting. They were taken to Vanderbilt University Medical Center and were reported to be in stable condition, according to Nashville ABC affiliate WKRN.
Two guns were recovered from the scene, and there was no sign of forced entry, police said.
Kristin Mumford, a spokesperson for the police department, told reporters at the scene that investigators were working to determine what happened prior to the gunfire.
“We are pursuing some leads and also interviewing and talking to people,” Mumford told WKRN. “Anyone who may have left the scene or anyone who has information about what happened inside the apartment, we very much want to talk to you.”
There have been 491 gunshot victims, including homicides and injuries, in Davidson County, where Nashville sits, this year as of Nov. 20, according to police data. The previous 11-year average was 332.
