WASHINGTON, United States (AFP)— The United States, Canada, Saudi Arabia and Cyprus Friday became the latest countries to restrict travel from southern Africa, where a new COVID strain labelled a “variant of concern” was discovered.

The World Health Organization renamed the B.1.1.529 strain of COVID-19 Omicron. It has reached Europe with one confirmed case in Belgium after being found in South Africa, Botswana and then in Hong Kong.

Anxious tourists in Johannesburg rushed to the airport to catch a last flight out as nations across the globe started shutting their doors, while many worried the new variant could be more resistant to vaccines.

Markets plunged as news sank in that the new variant — more infectious than the highly contagious Delta — could potentially deal a heavy blow to the global recovery.

US President Joe Biden said countries should donate more COVID-19 vaccines and give up intellectual property protections to manufacture more worldwide to stem the spread of the virus.

“The news about this new variant should make clearer than ever why this pandemic will not end until we have global vaccinations,” he said.

Scientists are now racing to determine the threat posed by the heavily mutated strain, and whether the current coronavirus vaccines should be adjusted.

The WHO said earlier it could take several weeks to understand the variant and cautioned against imposing travel curbs while scientific evidence was still scant.

EU officials holding an emergency meeting agreed to urge all 27 nations in the bloc to restrict travel from southern Africa, even though many members had already announced flight suspensions.

– ‘Draconian’ travel bans –

Europe is already struggling with a coronavirus surge, and the Netherlands on Friday became the latest country to ramp up anti-COVID restrictions with the early closure of bars, restaurants and shops.

“From Sunday, the whole of the Netherlands is effectively closed between 5pm and 5am,” Prime Minister Mark Rutte said.

Belgium announced the first publicly known case of B.1.1.529 in Europe: an unvaccinated person who returned on November 11 from Egypt via Turkey. The health ministry did not give the individual’s nationality, age or gender.

“It must be repeated that this is a suspect variant — we don’t know if it is a very dangerous variant,” Belgian Health Minister Frank Vandenbroucke said.

Israel said it has quarantined three people, one having just returned from Malawi.

Austria, the Czech Republic, Germany, Italy, Cyprus and the Netherlands on Friday joined Britain in suspending flights from the region. 

The United States and Canada also restricted travel from southern Africa. The US measures come into force on Monday.

Japan said it will require a 10-day quarantine period for travellers from the area.

The shock measures all included South Africa, as well as many of the following: Botswana, Eswatini (Swaziland), Lesotho, Namibia, Zambia, Mozambique, Malawi and Zimbabwe.

South Africa’s health ministry called the global rush to impose travel bans “draconian”.

Germany on Friday used a military plane to transfer intensive care patients to less afflicted regions, in an unprecedented move as it battles a vicious fourth wave of the pandemic.

“The last thing we need now is an introduced new variant,” Germany’s acting health minister Jens Spahn said.

The Philippines also suspended flights from southern Africa, while Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Jordan and Morocco also announced bans.

– ‘Ridiculous’ –

The rush to close off southern Africa comes a day after scientists in Johannesburg said they had detected the new strain with at least 10 mutations, compared with two for the Delta.

The variant is of “serious concern” and had been blamed for a surge in infection numbers, authorities in South Africa said. 

Spooked European markets fell close by three per cent, with airline shares especially hit. Tokyo closed down 2.53 per cent.

The new variant caused Wall Street to plunge in Friday’s holiday shortened session, with the Dow seeing its worst loss of the year

The European Medicines Agency said it was “premature” to talk about modifying current vaccines to target the new variant.

Germany’s BioNTech and US drugmaker Pfizer said they were studying the variant, with impact data expected “in two weeks at the latest” to say whether their jointly developed vaccine should be adjusted if Omicron spreads globally.

“It’s ridiculous, we will always be having new variants,” one disappointed traveller in South Africa said.

Tour operators deplored the quick end to the tourist season with safaris and beach holidays cancelled by the thousands.

“This is a knee-jerk reaction but with such a strong snowball effect,” said tour organiser Richard de la Rey.