New Covid variant *title edited by MNHQ at OP's request*

[Wingingthis]

Can anyone talk some sense about how dangerous this is or is it just the media over exaggerating?

From what Virgin Atlantic are saying on Twitter. The complete flight ban to the UK from SA is only until Sunday, when hotel quarantine is up and running. After that there will be flights, but you'll have to book into hotel quarantine to travel.

@Grabbobabbo

Absolutely no one will listen if they try to enforce restrictions around seeing family at Christmas. Just won't happen.

That's what people said last year, and yet we mostly complied. My 79 year old Mum spent Christmas on her own as a result.

If its mandatory again this year, then I'll comply again. But I will do so very reluctantly. I know my 25 year old son will point blank refuse this year though.

www.cnn.com/world/live-news/new-covid-variant-south-africa-11-26-21/index.html

There are some updates on here.

I am so fed up of trying to get her to listen to reason, getting conflicting info from different sources, and her alternately telling me to "stop panicking, this is not a crisis, I am sure it will all be fine" and dropping out of contact. I am giving up. My mother, also in SA, is telling me that all will not be fine, the flights are definitely being cancelled and my daughter telling Air France "oh but I'm a transit passenger" is not going to help her. Gin time.

That's what people said last year, and yet we mostly complied

That's exactly why people won't do it this year.

@Grabbobabbo

That's what people said last year, and yet we mostly complied

That's exactly why people won't do it this year.

fair point

Fellow EU nations Austria, France, Italy, the Netherlands and Malta have all announced imminent entry bans to all travelers who've entered South Africa, Lesotho, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Namibia and Eswatini in the past two weeks.

There was a chorus of people saying they wouldn’t lockdown again after the first lockdown. They all locked down again. And they will if it’s needed again.

They obviously had to comply with not going to shops and pubs and so on, because they were shut. The vast majority of people I know who said they wouldn't lock down again did not comply with the not going to family's houses rule.

Enjoy your gin @theDudesmummy,then gave another… there’s not a lot you can do especially if your daughter is being a bit awkward about it. She’s an adult and will have to sort it out herself. Keep us posted though, interested to see whether she manages to get back to Europe.

Thanks! I will.

EU states have just announced suspension of flights from South Africa and nearby countries:

www.reuters.com/world/eu-states-agree-suspend-travel-southern-africa-due-new-covid-19-variant-2021-11-26/

Matt Hancock on Radio 4!

I am in one of the areas who went from one tier to another just before Christmas last year and spent Christmas without seeing my family. NEVER AGAIN!

@ktel1

So is there going to be this sort of reaction every time a variant is discovered?

What if they find it in the UK ?

New "justifiable" lockdowns and vaccine passports?

Of course the vaccine passports won't make any sense from a health perspective but they don't now anyway.

What exactly is the plan here?

There are loads of variants but this one is a "variant of concern" because it has 30 mutations and it's unknown if current vaccines can deal with that. Stopping flights buys time where the scientists can work out if it makes people more sick or is more transmissible than Delta. If it's not more transmissible than Delta then presumably Delta will remain the dominant strain here but they need some time to investigate how worrying this is.

@theDudesmummy

Well, looks like the media is not exatly reporting everything correctly.

My daughter tells me that there is no problem for her, flights already booked are in fact still going ahead out of SA, as long as you are on a transit flight, which she is (Air France to Paris then changing planes to her ultimate destination). So she says, no need to panic. This is not the way it is being portrayed in the media, where it says flights are cancelled. And it seems to me to be odd if people taking two flights can get into an EU country from SA, whereas people who want to fly directly somewhere in the EU cannot... Time will tell I guess.

If anyone has any further info I would be grateful to hear it.

I saw something about if the passenger is home before Monday 4am they can quarantine at home. I'm just on my way out but will look for the correct info.

@manolantern

Matt Hancock on Radio 4!

Oh god

Breaking Nus!!!

It's called the OMNICRON variant!!

@Ohchristmastreeohchristmastree

There was a chorus of people saying they wouldn’t lockdown again after the first lockdown. They all locked down again. And they will if it’s needed again.

All, really? Are you quite sure about that, or is it conceivable that loads of people were socialising in private homes without you being aware of it?

I guess the new nu variant would be too confusing.

I approve of Omicron!

Omnicron sounds like a Thanos-like supervillain. But Nu sounded like knock-off sportswear so I suppose Omnicron is better.

I felt on board with Nu

They skipped it : 0

This is how the second Hong Kong case became infected with the new variant, having travelled from Canada, not SA, and having had no contact with the original case. Link is in German but this is a basic translation of what happened:

Yuen Kwok-yung, a leading microbiologist at Hong Kong University, says the 36-year-old apparently sometimes wore a mask with a valve (breathing) flap, and sometimes no face mask at all, when he opened the door of his room to take meals, or to take garbage out in the aisle. This may have led to virus particles being able to spread in the hotel corridor, which the experts also criticize as not being adequately ventilated.

Wear a proper mask people!

@Mixingvax

I saved this meme on The 9th sept but had seen it before haha they knew it was coming!

Haha 😂

Omicron 🤔