Travel from South Africa and seven other countries will be restricted beginning Monday in an attempt to stop the spread of a newly discovered Omicron Covid-19 strain. The limits will be put in place to reassure the public that the government is working promptly to mitigate the danger.
Biden Is Trying To Reassure Who Are Worried About A New Covidvariant
The administration is trying to take a more proactive stance than they did earlier this summer when they appeared to be caught off guard by the highly contagious Delta variant, which has now accounted for the vast majority of cases in the United States and slowed Biden’s efforts to return the country to normalcy in the field.
On July 4, Vice President Joe Biden forecasted a “summer of freedom” at a time when an outbreak of the Delta strain of the flu was spreading throughout the country. As a matter of fact, he went so far as to declare that the United States was “closer than ever to proclaiming our independence from a fatal virus.” Vice President Joe Biden met with advisers Sunday night and intended to address the problem in public on Monday.
Following the World Health Organization’s identification of Omicron as a “variant of concern,” he swiftly announced the additional travel restrictions. First identified in South Africa, the new variety has now been designated by the White House as a threat to national security.
In contrast, Americans may find little solace in the travel limits themselves, given the wide range of opinions on the usefulness of such measures among public health specialists. After a week of heavy travel and a Thanksgiving holiday that gave the impression that the nation was back to normal, there was a lot of fear about this new Covid threat.
According to the Transportation Security Administration, on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving, 2.3 million travelers were screened at airports, setting a new pandemic-era air travel record.
The first two cases of the Omicron Covid-19 strain found in the UK were confirmed by health officials in Ottawa on Sunday. Additional evidence has been found in Germany and the United Kingdom. On Sunday, authorities in the United Kingdom said that all visitors returning to the country would be subjected to PCR testing for Covid-19 and that face-covering would be required in shops and on public transit.
An area of worry for researchers has been discovering 30 changes in a section of the Omicron virus known as “spike protein,” which is used by coronaviruses to enter host cells, prompting fears that Omicron may be resistant to presently available vaccinations.
For Vice President Joe Biden and the Democratic-controlled Congress, concern about the new variety has acted as yet another setback in their efforts to demonstrate their ability to lead the nation out of the epidemic in doubt. Concerns about the economy, increasing prices, and the supply chain issue have taken a toll on Biden’s poll scores. Covid-19 has seen a significant drop in confidence from American voters, considering that it was formerly the area in which he received the greatest grades from them.