• FluTrackers.com Inc. does not provide medical advice. Information on this web site is collected from various internet resources, and the FluTrackers board of directors makes no warranty to the safety, efficacy, correctness or completeness of the information posted on this site by any author or poster. The information collated here is for instructional and/or discussion purposes only and is NOT intended to diagnose or treat any disease, illness, or other medical condition. Every individual reader or poster should seek advice from their personal physician/healthcare practitioner before considering or using any interventions that are discussed on this website. By continuing to access this website you agree to consult your personal physican before using any interventions posted on this website, and you agree to hold harmless FluTrackers.com Inc., the board of directors, the members, and all authors and posters for any effects from use of any medication, supplement, vitamin or other substance, device, intervention, etc. mentioned in posts on this website, or other internet venues referenced in posts on this website.
  • We are not asking for any donations. Do not donate to any entity who says they are raising funds for us.

Omicron - COVID-19 Variant (B.1.1529) a "Variant of Concern" & BA.2 sub-variant, XE

Cases increased rapidly in Gauteng in November, particularly in schools and
among young people, according to Lessells.
------------------------------------
2 weeks until BNT knows whether it's a vaccine escape.
Then 100 days until they can deliver the first charges of an adapted vaccine.
Too late for a possible spring-wave in March-April
 
Reports of various countries border restrictions implemented or under consideration


Coronavirus: EU to block flights after Belgium new variant case

Published1 hour ago

snip

"It is now important that all of us in Europe act very swiftly, decisively and united," she said on Friday.

The EU is already struggling to cope with fresh waves of the virus, and several countries have re-imposed lockdowns and restrictions.

Singapore, Italy, France and Israel are among those who have also placed Mozambique on their red lists.

The Czech Republic will ban anyone who has spent more than 12 hours in those nations and also Zambia from entering as of Saturday.

Japan has announced that from Saturday, travellers from much of southern Africa will need to quarantine for 10 days and take a total of four tests during that time.

"The key to crisis management is to prepare for the worst," the Japan Times newspaper quoted chief cabinet secretary Hirokazu Matsuno as saying.

more

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-59427770
 
sharon sanders said:
Reports of various countries border restrictions implemented or under consideration


Coronavirus: EU to block flights after Belgium new variant case

Published1 hour ago

snip

"It is now important that all of us in Europe act very swiftly, decisively and united," she said on Friday.

The EU is already struggling to cope with fresh waves of the virus, and several countries have re-imposed lockdowns and restrictions.

Singapore, Italy, France and Israel are among those who have also placed Mozambique on their red lists.

The Czech Republic will ban anyone who has spent more than 12 hours in those nations and also Zambia from entering as of Saturday.

Japan has announced that from Saturday, travellers from much of southern Africa will need to quarantine for 10 days and take a total of four tests during that time.

"The key to crisis management is to prepare for the worst," the Japan Times newspaper quoted chief cabinet secretary Hirokazu Matsuno as saying.

more

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-59427770
Click to expand...

The Associated Press

@AP

9m
The European Union nations have agreed to impose a ban on travel from southern Africa to counter the spread of a new COVID-19 variant. The risks of the variant remain largely unknown, and medical experts including the WHO have warned against overreaction.
 
Genomic surveillance of SARS-CoV-2 in Belgium

Report of the National Reference Laboratory (UZ Leuven & KU Leuven)

Situation update – 26 of November 2021 (report 2021_56)

Executive summary

South Africa has communicated on 25/11/2021 the emergence of a new variant of concern (will probably be named Nu, corresponding to the pangolin lineage B.1.1.529). In this report, we discuss the current situation in South Africa and the world, and we assess the current situation in Belgium.

We report here the first case of B.1.1.529 infection in Belgium.

Authors (National Reference Laboratory – UZ Leuven and KU Leuven):

Piet Maes, Lize Cuypers, Simon Dellicour, Guy Baele, Tom Wenseleers, Caspar Geenen, Bram Slechten, Johan Van Weyenbergh, Els Keyaerts, Barney Potter, Sunita Janssenswillen, Elke Wollants, Marc Van Ranst, Emmanuel André.


Table of contents
  1. Situation in South Africa
  2. Available genomic data worldwide
  3. Genetic profile of B.1.1.529
  4. High-throughput deep mutational scanning
  5. Situation in Belgium
  6. First case of B.1.529 in Belgium
  7. Recommendations
https://assets.uzleuven.be/files/2021-11/genomic_surveillance_update_211126.pdf
 
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-59427770

Coronavirus: EU to block flights after Belgium new variant case

EU nations will impose an emergency flight ban on countries in southern Africa after the discovery of a new coronavirus variant there, an EU Commission spokesperson has said.

Eric Mamer said member states agreed to the ban after Europe's first case of the variant was discovered in Belgium.
Click to expand...
 
Tracking COVID-19 variant Omicron

vLTiH3uR_400x400-80x80.jpg

Published 11 hours ago
November 26, 2021

... This page will be updated several times a day.

Map of confirmed cases of Omicron

https://bnonews.com/index.php/2021/11/omicron-tracker/
 
 

Bushman Lab
@bushmanlab
·
39m
The B.1.1.529 variant has a concerning collection of Spike substitutions; less remarked on, it also has the nucleocapsid substitutions R203K, G204R, which have been reported to increase genome packaging and infectivity (PMID: 34735219). Worrisome.
 

Trevor Bedford

@trvrb
·
2h
Growth rate (in absolute terms and relative to Delta) will be become clearer in the following days, but at the moment, I believe we're looking at a variant that potentially has significant immune evasion and that appears to be spreading rapidly. 15/16
22
309
711
Trevor Bedford

@trvrb
·
2h
The world should be immensely grateful to
@Tuliodna
,
@ceri_news
,
@nicd_sa
, the Network for Genomics Surveillance in South Africa and the Botswana Harvard HIV Reference Laboratory for discovering this variant and immediately alerting to its existence. 16/16
 
November 26

SAMRC records increase in Covid-19 fragments in Tshwane and Nelson Mandela Bay wastewater
  • The South African Medical Research Council says it has seen an increase in Covid-19 fragments in Tshwane and Nelson Mandela Bay wastewater treatment plants.
  • The council monitors wastewater treatment plants in four provinces weekly.
  • The team started noticing increases in October.
Excerpt

Dr Rabia Johnson, Deputy Director of the SAMRC's Biomedical Research and Innovation Platform, said the picture changed dramatically at the end of October.

"At the beginning of the month, levels of SARS-CoV-2 RNA fragments in wastewater were mostly low or undetectable; now we're measuring concentrations last seen during the third Covid-19 wave."

The SAMRC has warned that the rapidly increasing concentrations of Covid-19 RNA fragments in wastewater were a major cause for concern, especially alongside reports of increases in Covid-19 cases and deaths in the past week.
Click to expand...

https://www.news24.com/news24/southa...water-20211126
 
From:
"Media@cdc.gov (CDC)" <sohco@CDC.GOV>
To: <MMWR-MEDIA@LISTSERV.CDC.GOV>
Subject: CDC Media Statement: CDC Statement on B.1.1.529
Date: Nov 26, 2021 9:07 PM

Media Statement

For Immediate Release
Friday, November 26, 2021

Contact: CDC Media Relations
phone number redacted

CDC Statement on B.1.1.529

On November 26, 2021, the World Health Organization (WHO) classified a new variant, B.1.1.529, as a Variant of Concern and has named it Omicron. No cases of this variant have been identified in the U.S. to date. CDC is following the details of this new variant, first reported to the WHO by South Africa. We are grateful to the South African government and its scientists who have openly communicated with the global scientific community and continue to share information about this variant with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and CDC. We are working with other U.S. and global public health and industry partners to learn more about this variant, as we continue to monitor its path.
  
CDC is continuously monitoring variants and the U.S. variant surveillance system has reliably detected new variants in this country. We expect Omicron to be identified quickly, if it emerges in the U.S.

We know what it takes to prevent the spread of COVID-19. CDC recommends people follow prevention strategies such as wearing a mask in public indoor settings in areas of substantial or high community transmission, washing your hands frequently, and physically distancing from others. CDC also recommends that everyone 5 years and older protect themselves from COVID-19 by getting fully vaccinated. CDC encourages a COVID-19 vaccine booster dose for those who are eligible.

Travelers to the U.S. should continue to follow CDC recommendations for traveling.

CDC will provide updates as more information becomes available.
 
South Africa accuses UK and others of ‘knee-jerk’ reaction to new variant

Travel restrictions on southern African states imposed by countries after discovery of B.1.1.529 already harming economy

Nick Dall in Cape Town and Lizzy Davies
Fri 26 Nov 2021 13.09 EST
...
Should the new variant prove to be highly transmissible, there are fears that a fourth wave could materialise – and in a more dangerous form than had been anticipated.

However, Dr Angelique Coetzee, chair of the South African Medical Association and a practising GP based in Pretoria, said it was “premature” to make predictions of a health crisis.

“It’s all speculation at this stage. It may be it’s highly transmissible, but so far the cases we are seeing are extremely mild,” she said. “Maybe two weeks from now I will have a different opinion, but this is what we are seeing. So are we seriously worried? No. We are concerned and we watch what’s happening. But for now we’re saying, ‘OK: there’s a whole hype out there. [We’re] not sure why.’”

Coetzee said she would like to see the government embark on a push to get more people vaccinated, but added: “Unfortunately, it’s not only the responsibility of the government; it’s the responsibility of the public as well … You can only ask people so many times to go and get vaccinated, and if you don’t listen, then there’s consequences, and then you have to take the consequences.”
...

https://www.theguardian.com/world/20...nt-vaccination
 

Florian Krammer

@florian_krammer
1) My gut feeling from hearing of Omicron cases in Botswana, ex-Malawi, ex-Egypt (2 now it seems) and in South Africa is, that the variant was flying under the radar in undersequenced countries for some time until Botswana and South Africa detected it and sounded the alarm.
6:04 AM · Nov 27, 2021·Twitter Web App
310
Retweets
46
Quote Tweets
1,181
Likes

Tweet your reply

Reply
Florian Krammer

@florian_krammer
·
27m
Replying to
@florian_krammer
2) However, the fact that European countries only detected it in travelers after South Africa and others warned about it, probably means that many cases so far went undetected. It also tells us a lot about genomic surveillance in some high income countries.
7
86
506
Florian Krammer

@florian_krammer
·
23m
3) The mutations in Omicron which seem to wipe out the majority of neutralizing antibody epitopes are very worrisome. Combined with the apparent fitness of the virus, this could be a problem. There is now a lot to do to get a better idea of the risk this virus variant poses.
7
47
294
Florian Krammer

@florian_krammer
·
21m
4) We need to first figure out how widespread it is, how well it escapes neutralizing antibodies (assumption: very well), what its R0 is, how well it does against Delta and if it can cause severe disease in vaccinated or recovered individuals.
9
30
234
Florian Krammer

@florian_krammer
·
17m
5) Adapted vaccines need to be tested (this has started already) etc. Also, we should not forget that non-neutralizing antibody epitopes and T-cell epitopes are likely largely intact. And even if a variant vaccine becomes necessary, we would not start from scratch....
6
15
197
Florian Krammer

@florian_krammer
·
15m
6).....since it is likely that one 'variant-booster' would do the job. Our B-cells can be retrained to recognize both, the old version and the variant, and it doesn't take much to do that.
3
19
176
Florian Krammer

@florian_krammer
·
12m
7) But there are a lot of unknowns, and many 'scariants' have come and gone. I assume we will have a much better idea about the actual risk in 2-3 weeks. We need to stay calm and do our work.
6
24
196
Florian Krammer

@florian_krammer
·
10m
8) A shoutout and big thank you to
@Tuliodna
and many other researchers from South Africa and Botswana for sharing sequences and information in real time!

Florian Krammer

@florian_krammer
·
59s
Replying to
@florian_krammer
9) There was an update on the second case from Egypt. It seems now it was not from Egypt:
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom