Ramaphosa slams pandemic ‘health apartheid’; Dutch allow more than half to leave ‘Covid hotel’; Germany eyes crackdown on unjabbed

Berlin: Leaders in Germany were poised to approve a de-facto lockdown for the unvaccinated on Thursday with the United States set to ramp up testing requirements for travellers in a winter battle against Covid-19.

The discovery of a new Omicron variant, first reported to the World Health Organisation by South Africa on November 24, has spread worldwide rapidly, as the EU health agency warned Omicron could cause over half of Europe’s Covid cases in the "next few months".

More than two dozen countries and territories have now detected cases, extending to India on Thursday and the United States on Wednesday, among the countries hardest hit by the coronavirus pandemic since it first emerged nearly two years ago.

The WHO has cautioned that it could take weeks to discover if Omicron is more transmissible, and whether it causes more severe disease -- as well as how effective current treatments and vaccines are against it.

Its detection and spread, however, represent a fresh challenge to global efforts to battle the pandemic with several nations already re-imposing restrictions many had hoped were a thing of the past.

In Berlin, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, her designated successor Olaf Scholz and state leaders were huddled in emergency talks to impose tougher measures designed to stem rocketing Covid cases, fueled by the Delta variant, in Europe’s largest economy.

According to a draft agreement seen by AFP, the plans include a blanket ban on entering bars, restaurants, theatres and cinemas for anyone who has not been vaccinated or recovered from Covid.

The unvaccinated would also be banned from Christmas markets and non-essential shops and only be able to socialise with a limited number of people. Rising infection rates have already seen some European governments reintroduce mandatory mask-wearing, social-distancing measures, curfews or lockdowns in a desperate attempt to limit hospitalisations, leaving businesses fearing another grim Christmas.

US President Joe Biden is expected to announce that toughened new rules on Covid-19 testing for travelers to the United States will take effect next week. Top of the list will be an announcement that toughened rules on testing for travelers will take effect within days, a senior administration official said.

Biden will announce that from "early next week, all international travellers will be required to test negative within one day of their departure to the United States," the official told reporters.

This will apply to all travellers, both US and foreign, regardless of whether they have been vaccinated, the official aid. For domestic travellers, Biden will announce he is extending a mask mandate on airplanes, trains and other public transport through mid-March.

India has yet to impose new blanket international travel bans but earlier this week its health ministry ordered all inbound travellers from "countries at-risk" to undergo mandatory post-arrival Covid testing, along with the random testing of other international arrivals. WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has warned of a "toxic mix" of low vaccination and testing rates creating a "recipe for breeding and amplifying variants".

"We need to use the tools we already have to prevent transmission and save lives from Delta. If we do that, we will also prevent transmission and save lives from Omicron," he added.

On Wednesday, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said it was time to "potentially think about mandatory vaccination" in the bloc -- although only individual member states can impose such mandates.

Austria has already said it will make Covid jabs compulsory next February, and Greece has mandated vaccines for over-60s. In Belgium, Health Minister Frank Vandenbroucke on Thursday spoke of "chaos" in Flemish schools as cases soared as the country’s leading region Flanders called for new measures.

The United Nations said Thursday that the pandemic has pushed 20 million more people into poverty around the globe, estimating that 274 million people would need emergency assistance next year, up 17 percent on 2021, as economies suffer with Covid restrictions.

Meanwhile, the South African President Cyril Ramaphosa on Thursday warned against the risk of "health apartheid" as he took aim at travel bans imposed on his country after it detected the new Omicron variant of Covid.

On a visit to Ivory Coast, he said the curbs, which many countries have also applied to countries across southern Africa, were "regrettable, unfair and unscientific".

"Given that it was our own African scientists who first detected the Omicron variant, it is also a slap in the face of African excellence and expertise," Ramaphosa said after meeting his Ivorian counterpart Alassane Ouattara.

"These bans will cause untold damage, in particular to travel and tourism industries that sustain businesses and livelihoods in South Africa and the southern African region." He added: "As South Africa, we stand firmly against any form of health apartheid in the fight against this pandemic." He called for a "global guarantee" to ensure that vaccines and treatments for Covid-19 "are produced at scale and made freely and equitably available to all people."

South African scientists announced on November 25 that they had detected a highly mutated form of coronavirus. In a related development, The Netherlands said on Thursday more than half of the passengers quarantined at a hotel after testing positive following their arrival from South Africa can leave, but those with the Omicron variant must stay.

The passengers, who arrived on two KLM flights from South Africa last Friday and initially tested positive for Covid-19, tested negative during second tests taken from Monday onwards. "They are free to continue with their journey," Willem van den Oetelaar, spokesman for the local Public Health Services told AFP.

Meantime, the Omicron variant of Covid-19, believed to be more contagious than previous strains, could cause more than half of all Covid infections in Europe in coming months, the EU health agency ECDC said on Thursday.

"Based on mathematical modelling conducted by ECDC, there are indications that Omicron could cause over half of all SARS-CoV-2 infections in the EU/EEA within the next few months," it said in a threat assessment report.

Earlier on Thursday, India announced its first two cases of the highly infectious Omicron Covid variant, months after a devastating wave of the virus killed more than 200,000 people around the country.