New heavily mutated variant B.1.1.529 in South Africa raises concern

[captain3d]

PCR only when landing in the UK now. Quarantine until negative result.

What I don’t understand is that you are allowed to travel from the airport to your designated address where are you will take your mail in test. There will be thousands of people on public transport traveling from the airport before being tested.

[oiseux]

It was inevitable -- first omicron case reported in the US, in California. The person traveled from SA on November 22nd. Fully vaccinated and showing mild symptoms. Confirmed now to be a resident of San Francisco. Omicron verified on 11/29.

It will take weeks for all of this to unfold, I agree. It is too early to be dismissive nor freaked out.

https://news.yahoo.com/first-confirm...185518322.html

[Freedom56]

Quote:

Originally Posted by tulak That will be a pain, but there’s no reason to believe an antigen test won’t be sufficient, since that’s what is currently accepted. I guess we’ll know soon enough. It’s also 3 days before departure, not 72 hours. That provides a little more flexibility. https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019...travelers.html

72 hours = 3 days

[tulak]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Freedom56 72 hours = 3 days

Not for reentry to the US. It can be more than 72 hours as long as it’s 3 days prior to departure. From the CDC link I posted above:

Quote:

The 1-day period is 1 day before the flight’s departure and the 3-day period is the 3 days before the flight’s departure. The Order uses 1-day and 3-day time frames instead of 24 hours and 72 hours to provide more flexibility to the air passenger and aircraft operator. By using a 1-day and 3-day window, test acceptability does not depend on the time of the flight or the time of day that the test sample was taken. For example, if you are fully vaccinated and your flight is at 1pm on a Friday, you could board with a negative test that was taken any time on the prior Tuesday or after. If you are not fully vaccinated and your flight is at 1pm on a Friday, you could board with a negative test that was taken any time on the prior Thursday.

[Christine]

Quote:

Originally Posted by oiseux It was inevitable -- first omicron case reported in the US, in California. The person traveled from SA on November 22nd. Fully vaccinated and showing mild symptoms. Confirmed now to be a resident of San Francisco. Omicron verified on 11/29. It will take weeks for all of this to unfold, I agree. It is too early to be dismissive nor freaked out. https://news.yahoo.com/first-confirm...185518322.html

50-60 new cases of omicron in Oslo, Norway after one person returning from SA went to the company Christmas dinner last week.


Source in Norwegian

https://www.nrk.no/osloogviken/omikr...ord-1.15754329


And I'm pretty sure many others all around the world did similar things before all those planes were grounded.



The variant cannot be stopped so all we can do is get vaccinated and use common sense. Wash our hands and use masks etc.


I am currently visiting friends in Oslo and have been eating at various restaurants this week.

[Hamlet]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Christine And I'm pretty sure many others all around the world did similar things before all those planes were grounded. The variant cannot be stopped so all we can do is get vaccinated and use common sense. Wash our hands and use masks etc.

Yeah, it’s not even clear that the new variant originated in SA. They may have just been the first to discover it.

The range of possible concern here ranges from this is good ( Omicron is milder and outcompetes Delta ), to meh ( Omicron doesn’t actually outcompete Delta ), to very bad ( Omicron outcompetes Delta, is just as serious, and avoids vaccines ).

We’ll just have to wait and see. There will be a vast amount of useless content about it produced in the meantime though.

[Montecfo]

Certainly the early indication is this new variant causes mild symptoms. Time will tell but I'm remaining optimistic.

[disneysteve]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Montecfo Certainly the early indication is this new variant causes mild symptoms. Time will tell but I'm remaining optimistic.

It's great if it doesn't make people as sick, but that won't keep it from overwhelming the system. That still means more sick people, more doctor visits, more tests, more quarantines, more time out of work and school, etc. And we are now fully into flu season, around here at least, so this just builds on top of that. I think we saw 10+ flu cases on Monday at my clinic.

[Montecfo]

Quote:

Originally Posted by disneysteve It's great if it doesn't make people as sick, but that won't keep it from overwhelming the system. That still means more sick people, more doctor visits, more tests, more quarantines, more time out of work and school, etc. And we are now fully into flu season, around here at least, so this just builds on top of that. I think we saw 10+ flu cases on Monday at my clinic.

If doesn't mean any of those things-yet. And it seems a bit dubious to project that people who aren't very sick will be "overwhelming the system".

Note that the first documented case out of SA involved someone who was seeking medical care for another matter, not Covid.

Time will tell.

[disneysteve]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Montecfo If doesn't mean any of those things-yet. And it seems a bit dubious to project that people who aren't very sick will be "overwhelming the system". .

Around here, if you have any COVID symptoms, mild or not, you can’t return to school or work at many places without a negative PCR test.

[Gumby]

Quote:

Originally Posted by disneysteve Around here, if you have any COVID symptoms, mild or not, you can’t return to school or work at many places without a negative PCR test.

That's a human made rule, not an immutable fact of nature. If necessary and warranted by changes in the virus, the rules can be changed.

[disneysteve]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gumby That's a human made rule, not an immutable fact of nature. If necessary and warranted by changes in the virus, the rules can be changed.

For sure. I certainly hope that's the case soon. Right now, every kid who comes in with cold symptoms is automatically out of school for 3 days until their COVID test comes back negative. I'd love to see that no longer be necessary.

[jj]

Quote:

Originally Posted by tulak Not for reentry to the US. It can be more than 72 hours as long as it’s 3 days prior to departure. From the CDC link I posted above:

Precisely! The link is quite clear. I had a British Airways agent (little Hitler on the check-in desk) argue with me that it had to be 72 hours and not 3 days. In fact, the guy was so mathematically challenged that he couldn't even work out that my result was within 72 hours anyway! I wanted to get my test as early as possible so that I had time to cancel an airport hotel room that I had booked in case a positive test made it so I couldn't travel. No sense in wasting yet another $200!

Now that they've changed the rules so the test has to be within 24 hours, or is it one day it makes traveling back to the US even more stressful than it already was.

[ShokWaveRider]

Traveling is just to exhausting at the moment. I do not know why folks torture themselves just to get on a plane or not miss out on a vacation. Plenty to do at home that is way more fun and inviting than travel. Even though I do miss our Mexico trips.

[oiseux]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Christine 50-60 new cases of omicron in Oslo, Norway after one person returning from SA went to the company Christmas dinner last week. Source in Norwegian https://www.nrk.no/osloogviken/omikr...ord-1.15754329 And I'm pretty sure many others all around the world did similar things before all those planes were grounded. The variant cannot be stopped so all we can do is get vaccinated and use common sense. Wash our hands and use masks etc. I am currently visiting friends in Oslo and have been eating at various restaurants this week.

I saw something similar out of Portugal with a pro football/soccer team. One teammate infected almost the entire squad, and the team doctor, who brought it back to the hospital.

There is another case in Minnesota, but this person likely caught it on a trip to New York, where they attended an anime conference. I'm guessing there will be many more in the days to come, given the speed of spread. They were vaccinated and have mild symptoms. ETA: There were 53,000 attendees at the conference.

The data that needs to be watched is the outbreak in SA's Gauteng province, where the numbers have been growing strongly and the variant is now dominant. Reinfections are also being seen at a higher rate than prior variants. The hospitalization data will be a key, as the disease progresses in those that are infected. There is no wonder why the WHO has dispatched a surge team to the region.

[W2R]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ShokWaveRider Traveling is just to exhausting at the moment. I do not know why folks torture themselves just to get on a plane or not miss out on a vacation. Plenty to do at home that is way more fun and inviting than travel. Even though I do miss our Mexico trips.

+1000 I don't understand why they do this, either!! But then, I don't like to travel.

I sometimes do go to places via Google Streetview, which I prefer doing instead of actual travel. Still, I think actual travel, dragging oneself through crowded airports and sitting on planes for hours must be very important to some people. I probably just don't "get it".

[tulak]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ShokWaveRider Traveling is just to exhausting at the moment. I do not know why folks torture themselves just to get on a plane or not miss out on a vacation. Plenty to do at home that is way more fun and inviting than travel. Even though I do miss our Mexico trips.

I went to Mexico earlier in the year and had a great time!

Testing is a pain and adds a bit of uncertainty, but it’s the new norm for the foreseeable future. It’s not great, but worth it to me, and as long as things are open (relatively) to where I’m going, I’ll deal with the inconvenience.

Welcome to the new norm!

[Chuckanut]

Quote:

Originally Posted by W2R +1000 I don't understand why they do this, either!! But then, I don't like to travel. I sometimes do go to places via Google Streetview, which I prefer doing instead of actual travel. Still, I think actual travel, dragging oneself through crowded airports and sitting on planes for hours must be very important to some people. I probably just don't "get it".

With all due respect to our illustrious member W2R, "dragging oneself through crowded airports and sitting on planes for hours" is a means to an end.

Real travel is doing things like meeting a Buddhist monk in full robes who decided he was more comfortable leaving his new boots at the trailhead and hiking the trails of Mt. Rainier in his bare feet.

What bother me most about the variants is that they remind me we are not doing a good job overall of transitioning from a pandemic emergency to an endemic situation where we must deal with corona virus for many years in the future.

[Montecfo]

I still like to travel. Choose trips that are worth it.

[audreyh1]

OK - case in San Francisco, case in Minnesota someone who traveled to New York for a big conference, 5 cases in Metro NYC that all appear to be community spread, one case in Colorado…..

It’s all over the place in the US already! We’ll have way more cases coming out of the woodwork each day.