World on Alert As UK Reports Cases of Omicron COVID Variant

Britain became the latest country Saturday to report cases of the new potentially more contagious omicron variant of the coronavirus.

  • Published
FILE - People line up to get on an overseas flight at OR Tambo International Airport in Johannesburg, South Africa, Nov. 26, 2021. As the world grapples with the emergence of the new highly transmissible variant of COVID-19, worried scientists in South Africa — where omicron was first identified — are scrambling to combat its lightning spread across the country. (AP Photo/Jerome Delay, File)
Image via AP Photo/Jerome Delay

This article was republished here with permission from The Associated Press, however it is no longer available to read on Snopes.com.

LONDON (AP) — Britain became the latest country Saturday to report cases of the new potentially more contagious omicron variant of the coronavirus as governments around the world sought to shore up their defenses by slapping restrictions on travel from nations in southern Africa. Amid fears that the recently identified new variant has the potential to be more resistant to the protection offered by vaccines, there are growing concerns that the pandemic and associated lockdown…

Read at AP News