The world reacts to the spread of the Omicron variant of the COVID-19 virus

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen at European Commission.

Source: APP

On Friday the World Health Organisation declared the recently-discovered B.1.1.529 strain of COVID-19, first detected in southern Africa, to be a variant of concern and renamed it Omicron.


The classification puts Omicron into the most-troubling category of COVID-19 variants, along with the globally-dominant Delta, plus its weaker rivals Alpha, Beta and Gamma.  It appears to be increasing in almost all of South Africa's provinces, and has also been identified in Botswana, Belgium, Hong Kong and Israel.  How has the world responded?
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