The virus has delivered a massive Holiday surge and now a new, possibly more dangerous, strain—prompting a revival of restrictions and travel crackdowns.
(Originally published Nov. 26 in “What in the World“) The World Health Organization has called an urgent meeting Friday to evaluate a newly identified strain of Covid-19 causing a spike of infections in South Africa. The new variant, so far known only as B.1.1.529, has significant mutations that health experts say may make it the most worrying variant yet, more transmissible and able to overcome immunity afforded by present vaccines or past infection with earlier strains.
The new strain has already been identified in a vaccinated traveler being quarantined in Hong Kong after returning from South Africa, who passed the virus to another person quarantined in a room across the hall who had returned from Canada. The discovery could delay plans to lift restrictions on travel between the territory and the rest of China, which Hong Kong has said would precede any relaxation of its restrictions on reentry from abroad, including its strict quarantine of up to 21 days.
Israel, Japan, Singapore and the U.K. have already banned flights from South Africa and several neighboring countries. The European Union and India said they would do the same.
The news comes as Europe battles a dramatic resurgence of infections by the Delta strain that was first identified in India, sparking a deadly outbreak there in April. Europe’s resurgence has been led by infections among unvaccinated adults, but is also spreading among children and adults vaccinated last spring whose immunity is starting to ebb. Europe’s health authority only yesterday approved vaccines for children five to 11 years old and endorsed booster shots for all adults earlier this week.
News of the new strain is already hitting financial markets in Asia and Europe. Much of the world has been reopening, leading to hopes that life and travel would normalize and economic activity would keep rebounding, easing supply-chain disruptions that have exacerbated inflation and hindered a revival in services.
Even as infections rebound in the U.S., travel reportedly returned to pre-pandemic highs ahead of Thursday’s Thanksgiving holiday. And big retail chains, already facing a shortage of workers for the Holidays, are among those resisting President Joe Biden’s vaccine mandate for large employers. The Administration is appealing a court-ordered stay on the mandate, and is planning to add a requirement that all essential travelers—largely truckers—crossing into the U.S. over land borders to be vaccinated.
Reopenings have taken place despite warnings against doing so in the face of rising evidence that surging infections in early fall across Eastern Europe was seeping into central Europe, where at least one-third of the population remained unvaccinated. Now nations across Europe are reimposing restrictions, with Austria imposing a full lockdown, sparking widespread protests from citizens fed up with the pandemic.
France has issued its own call for citizens to get boosters, sparking a rush for new jabs after it said people will no longer be considered fully vaccinated after a certain length of time. France enforces the use of a vaccine passport for entry to many retail venues, but has pledged not to reimpose restrictions on travel or opening hours.
The reopenings are to blame for a rebounding death rate as infections surge despite higher vaccination rates. Increased commingling and travel, as well as decreased mask wearing, have increased opportunities for the virus to find the minority of vaccinated individuals still susceptible to infection and then to jump to unvaccinated populations, especially children. This has been especially true in Germany, where lower vaccinations last year were offset by tighter restrictions on gathering and movement.
