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Britain has left it ‘too late’ to halt the spread of the Omicron super-variant, a leading scientist has warned.
Professor Mark Woolhouse said bringing in new curbs on travel was ‘a case of shutting the stable door after the horse has bolted’.
The Edinburgh University epidemiologist said it was ‘spreading pretty rapidly’ and could become the world’s dominant strain.
On Saturday, it was announced all travellers arriving in England will be required to take a Covid-19 pre-departure test from Tuesday.
Ministers said the test was intended to be a temporary measure following new data showing an increase in the number of cases of the new strain linked to foreign travel.
Meanwhile Nigeria is being added to the Government’s travel red list in a blow for those wanting to see family over the festive period.
It comes as the US also battles its own war against the new variant, with a breakout linked to a New York City anime convention last month.
A Minnesota man who tested positive for Omicron after travelling to the city said more than a dozen of his friends who also attended contracted the virus.
Professor Mark Woolhouse (pictured) said bringing in new curbs on travel was ‘a case of shutting the stable door after the horse has bolted’
Professor Woolhouse, who is a member of the Scientific Pandemic Influenza Group on Modelling which advises the Government, said the measures would not make a ‘material difference’ as the variant is already ‘spreading pretty rapidly’.
He told BBC One’s Andrew Marr Show on Sunday: ‘I think that may be a case of shutting the stable door after the horse has bolted.
‘If Omicron is here in the UK, and it certainly is, if there’s community transmission in the UK, and it certainly looks that way, then it’s that community transmission that will drive a next wave.
‘The cases that are being imported are important, we want to detect those and isolate any positive cases we find, as we would for any case anywhere.
‘But I think it’s too late to make a material difference to the course of the Omicron wave, if we’re going to have one.’
Meanwhile the president of the Royal College of Emergency Medicine warned the NHS will be in a ‘very, very difficult position’ if the Omicron variant were to lead to a surge in hospital admissions.
Dr Katherine Henderson said hospitals were already struggling to cope as they enter winter.
‘It is pretty spectacularly bad now, it will get worse – and if the new variant becomes a thing in terms of numbers and translates into hospitals admissions we are going to be in a very, very difficult position,’ she said.
‘We will always still be there. We still want patients to come but we do have to help people to understand that really at the moment the service is so stretched that an extra push could be very very difficult.’
The travel industry reacted with fury after the latest measures were announced, despite ministers insisting they were only ‘temporary’.
Deputy Prime Minister Dominic Raab told Sky News’s Trevor Phillips On Sunday programme: ‘I know that is a burden for the travel industry but we have made huge, huge strides in this country.
‘We have got to take the measures targeted forensically to stop the new variant seeding in this country to create a bigger problem.
‘We have taken a balanced approach but we are always alert to extra risk that takes us back not forward.’
Prof Woolhouse said although the numbers of people with the Omicron variant are ‘still quite small’ and likely remain in the hundreds, they are ‘growing quite fast’.
But he insisted vaccinations will still be ‘very, very good’ at protecting against the new variant.
Official data shows that the proportion of positive Covid tests with a mutation synonymous with the highly-evolved strain is on the rise. Like Alpha, or the ‘Kent variant’, Omicron has a specific alteration which means it can be detected through PCR tests without the need for genomic sequencing. The proportion of positive tests in England with this so-called S-gene dropout has risen from 0.1 per cent in the past week to 0.3 per cent, the equivalent of one in 330. Scientists said the increase in S-gene dropouts suggests there could be hundreds of Omicron cases that are flying under the radar currently
Data in South Africa shows the R-rate has soared to over three per cent in recent weeks as Omicron took hold in Gauteng province
Statistician Professor Sir David Spiegelhalter told Sky News’s Trevor Phillips On Sunday programme: ‘It’s a very difficult situation because we haven’t got a lot of data yet at all, almost nothing from this country about what the risks are.
‘In South Africa there’s data coming out showing pretty strong evidence that the increased risk of transmission and some evidence about people going to hospital, but it may actually be milder but we haven’t got enough data yet to be able to say.
‘It doesn’t look as if it’s really severe if you get it, I think that’s about all we can say at the moment.’
Asked if measures to combat the spread of Omicron have gone far enough, Prof Sir David added: ‘It’s best to be precautionary, when there’s so much we don’t know… and when we don’t know it’s better to be safe than sorry.’
In the US the Minnesota man revealed more than a dozen of his friends who also attended the packed gathering in New York City contracted the virus.
The man, who has not been identified, reportedly alerted health officials in his home state of the potential spread – which he says affected approximately 15 members of the 35-strong friend group.
It is unclear whether any of his friends contracted the Omicron variant – which is thought to be more transmissible than previous versions of the respiratory virus.
The World Health Organization (WHO) said there have been no deaths linked to the super mutant variant despite the strain being spotted in 38 countries.
In the US, the variant has spread to 16 states, including new cases in Connecticut and Massachusetts.
As of Saturday, 37 Omicron cases have been identified in the U.S., including eight in New York
Hours before the confirmation of New York cases, Omicron was confirmed in a man who tested positive days after attending a huge anime convention (above) in Manhattan’s Javits Center. The man now says that more than a dozen friends who attended the convention with him have since tested positive for Covid. It is not known whether the cases are related to the new variant
According to officials from the Minnesota Department of Health, the group gathered at the crowded convention at Manhattan’s Jacob K. Javits Center in Midtown – which drew more than 53,000 people – sometime between November 19 and 21.
In the days following the event, the department says, roughly half of the group tested positive for the virus.
Entry required participants be vaccinated, however, it is unclear if any in the group who got infected were under the age of 12.
The man – who was one of the first to test positive for the Omicron strain in the US since it surfaced in southern Africa late last month – was fully vaccinated and had a booster shot.
Earlier in the week, the department revealed that the man first experienced ‘mild symptoms’ of the virus on November 22, the day after the convention ended.
The man then got tested two days later, officials say, and subsequently tested positive for the variant – the second person in the US to do so.
Images release by the Covid Genomics UK Consortium show the drastic increase in spike protein mutations in the Omciron COVID-19 variant when compared to the Delta variant
Members of the friend group hailed from an array of states across the country – prompting fears that the convention contributed – and may still be contributing – to the strain’s spread across the nation.
On Saturday, those fears were somewhat confirmed when Connecticut Governor Ned Lamont reported the first case in his state, which was contracted by a man in his 60s who had a relative attend the anime convention.
‘This likely is not the only case of the variant in the state,’ Lamont said in a statement. ‘That being said, I must urge everyone in Connecticut not to panic. While we are still learning more about this variant, our health providers are continuing to do their best to protect everyone.’
The man, who was fully vaccinated, started experiencing mild symptoms on November 27 and was tested on November 29, officials say. His sample was then passed onto the Department of Public Health, which detected the omnicron variant.
‘Although omicron appears to be more infectious than the delta variant, both affected individuals have had mild symptoms to date,’ Public Health Commissioner Dr. Manisha Juthani said.
‘It is reassuring as their immunity seems to be helping them fight off this infection. Vaccination and boosters are still our greatest offense. If we can keep people out of the hospital, reducing morbidity and mortality of COVID-19, it is still a win for vaccines in our society.’
Massachusetts also announced its first case Saturday, a day after New Jersey, Georgia, Pennsylvania, Maryland and Missouri reported their first confirmed cases.
The variant also has been detected in Nebraska, Minnesota, California, Hawaii, Colorado and Utah.
The WHO warned it could take weeks to determine how infectious the variant is, whether it causes more severe illness and how effective treatments and vaccines are against it.
‘We’re going to get the answers that everybody out there needs,’ WHO emergencies director Michael Ryan said Friday.
Many of the Omicron cases surfacing in the states – and across the globe – look to be connected to people who had traveled to South Africa recently, including the first person in the US to have an identified case of the variant, a resident of San Francisco.
The Minnesota man told health officials from his home state that he had traveled to the country last month, prior to the convention.
The newly discovered Omicron variant of the Covid-19 virus has caused panic across the globe, but is this fear justified? The Mail on Sunday has spoken to some of the UK’s most eminent scientists who are optimistic.
Earlier this week, New York Mayor Bill De Blasio warned those who attended the three-day anime event to ‘immediately’ receive a COVID-19 test
The man, who hails from Hennepin County, has reportedly provided names and contact information of several in his group to health officials.
However, since the friends live in other states, their names were forwarded to those states’ health departments, and details of their cases are currently not known.
Earlier this week, New York Mayor Bill De Blasio warned those who attended the three-day anime event to ‘immediately’ receive a COVID-19 test.
‘We are aware of a case of the Omicron variant identified in Minnesota that is associated with travel to a conference in New York City, and we should assume there is community spread of the variant in our city,’ The mayor – who has less than a month left in office until Mayor-Elect Eric Adams assumes office – said in a statement Thursday.
‘We are working closely with the State and the CDC, as well as the Javits Center’s event organizers, and our Test and Trace Corps will be contacting conference attendees,’ he continued.
Officials fear that the convention, held at the Javits center between November 19 and 21, may have contributed to the spread of the new variant
The conference, called Anime NYC, saw more than 53,000 guests flock from all over the country to Manhattan’s Javits Center
He then warned: ‘Anyone who attended the AnimeNYC conference, especially anyone experiencing symptoms, should get tested immediately and take additional precautions, including social distancing.
I urge all New Yorkers to get vaccinated, wear a face mask while indoors and in public, and help our city beat this virus once and for all.
The revelation concerning the potential spread of the still largely unknown strain comes as New York health officials announced three more cases of the Omicron variant on Saturday, bringing the total tally of cases linked to the new variant in the state to eight.
‘The Omicron variant is here, and as anticipated we are seeing the beginning of community spread,’ state Health Commissioner Mary Bassett said in a Saturday news release.
Seven of the cases have been found in New York City, once a global epicenter of the pandemic, and the other in Suffolk County.
The arrival of Omicron comes as hospitals statewide continue to strain under a surge in coronavirus cases, most traced to the Delta variant, along with staffing shortages.
The new variant could also slow global economic recovery, just as the Delta strain did, International Monetary Fund chief Kristalina Georgieva said on Friday.
‘Even before the arrival of this new variant, we were concerned that the recovery, while it continues, is losing somewhat momentum,’ she said.
‘A new variant that may spread very rapidly can dent confidence.’
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