Stay updated with breaking news from Variant Technical Group. Get real-time updates on events, politics, business, and more. Visit us for reliable news and exclusive interviews.
The Omicron storm seems to be on. The lineage has been throwing out a series of sub-lineages within a short span of around 4-month. After the XE variant, two more new variants within the Omicron lineage have recently been identified via genome sequencing in the United Kingdom.
Several countries quickly closed down travel to South Africa, where the variant was first discovered, including Bahrain, Belgium, Britain, Croatia, France, Germany, Israel, Italy, Japan, Malta, the Netherlands, Hong Kong, the Philippines and Singapore. This also negatively impacted foreign financial markets.
The Secretary of State for Health and Social Care has given a statement to Parliament on a new variant under investigation and action government is taking.
The highly mutated COVID-19 variant B.1.1.529 'may pose a significant risk to public health', health and social care secretary Sajid Javid has told MPs.
Update: President Biden has spoken out about the variant, taking to Twitter to write:...