LONDON: Britain announced new measures on Saturday to try to slow the spread of the newly identified Omicron coronavirus variant and a top health official said there was a “reasonable chance” that vaccines could be less effective against it.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson said all arrivals would have to take a test and it was time to step up booster jabs. “We will require anyone who enters the UK to take a PCR test by the end of the second day after their arrival and to self-isolate until they have a negative result,” Johnson told a news conference.
He said those who had come into contact with people testing positive for a suspected case of Omicron would have to self-isolate for 10 days and that the government would tighten up the rules on wearing face coverings. The programme to offer booster jabs would also be stepped up, he added.
Speaking alongside Johnson, England’s Chief Medical Officer Chris Whitty said there was a reasonable chance that the newly identified variant could be less easy to tackle with vaccines. “There is a reasonable chance that at least there will be some degree of vaccine escape with this variant,” Whitty said.
Earlier on Saturday, health minister Sajid Javid said two linked cases of the new Omicron variant have been detected in Britain connected to travel to southern Africa. Authorities in Germany and the Czech Republic also said they had suspected cases.
The discovery of the variant has sparked global concern, a wave of travel bans or curbs and a sell-off on financial markets on Friday as investors worried that Omicron could stall a global recovery from the nearly two-year pandemic.
Omicron, dubbed a “variant of concern” by the World Health Organization, is potentially more contagious than previous variants of the disease, although experts do not know yet if it will cause more or less severe COVID-19 compared to other strains. The variant was first discovered in South Africa and had also since been detected in Belgium, Botswana, Israel and Hong Kong.
