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steven, this is an inevitable reality. covid is practically impossible. how is this affecting the preparations for this grand opening? >> reporter: well, isa, you know, as much as chinese officials dread any cases inside their borders because of that zero covid policy, but this is something they have themselves acknowledged and presumably prepared for, and they are, of course, now stressing the number of positive cases inside this closed loop accounts for a tiny percentage of all the games' participants in the bubble. state media saying so far there is no community spread of the virus within the bubbles. that's why they're not portraying this in a way a testament how, whil well their has been working. this is a daunting task and with more events kicking off given thoi contagious the omicron
expert after another will confirm already is here. guys. >> that it is. polo sandoval, feels like we have been here before, feels better this time with the vaccines. thank you. u.s. researchers are now saying they have found the omicron variant is, quote, markedly resistant to four major vaccines as well as to most antibody-based therapies. >> you know, each new variant as i like to say has its own shop of horrors and the omicron variant, here is what i'm worried about. it is so transmissible. second, it has the immune escape property. >> cnn's senior medical correspondent elizabeth cohen joining us now with more. i think this is leading to a lot of confusion and concern for people when we hear that information. when we factor in boosters though, across the board, how does that impact this lower efficacy?
in from tuesday, and it can be a pcr oran in from tuesday, and it can be a pcr or an antigen test but also adding to the restriction already put in place recently, which of course were the arrival tests before des two, when you get back to the uk, as well as self isolation until you get your negative results, hopefully. when you combine all these measures, they are very damaging for consumer confidence and consumers will say, i can't really be bothered with booking the trip at the moment. but in this instance, in these uncertain times when scientists are still unclear as to what exactly the omicron variant is, doesn't health trump consumer confidence? it is really important _ trump consumer confidence? it 3 really important to put health as a priority, obviously, but you have to balance it with economic priorities and not damaging job prospects, the whole sector, which itself has been in trouble for so long, and is only just getting back to normal. you can
africa as we wait to assess how dangerous the omicron variant is, one of the early doctors there treating it says the cases she has seen, as i mentioned earlier, have been relatively mild. now, if that holds true, it's certainly good news. but as we have been discussing, it's really too soon to tell whether that pattern will hold or not over larger case numbers. sadly, with only about one in four south africans vaccinated, answers should come sooner there than here. cnn's david mackenzie joins us now from johannesburg. so, what are doctors in south africa saying about the symptoms and the rates of transmission that they are seeing from this omicron? >> reporter: well, anderson, if you look at the numbers, hospitalizations are doubling in the province i am sitting in now every seven days. that is a rapid rise. so, the expectation is that this variant could be more transmissible. whether it's more severe, the jury is still out. as you said, some doctors are saying they are seeing less severe cases. but the early cluster outbreak of this surge was from a university. you know, so that lends itself
at the same time countries including the u.s. are slamming the door on travel from south africa as we wait to assess how dangerous the omicron variant is, one of the early doctors there treating it says the cases she has seen, as i mentioned earlier, have been relatively mild. now, if that holds true, it's certainly good news. but as we have been discussing, it's really too soon to tell whether that pattern will hold or not over larger case numbers. sadly, with only about one in four south africans vaccinated, answers should come sooner there than here. cnn's david mackenzie joins us now from johannesburg. so, what are doctors in south africa saying about the symptoms and the rates of transmission that they are seeing from this omicron? >> reporter: well, anderson, if you look at the numbers, hospitalizations are doubling in the province i am sitting in now every seven days. that is a rapid rise. so, the expectation is that this variant could be more transmissible. whether it's more severe, the jury is still out. as you said, some doctors are