AFP

The United States is by far the biggest contributor to global plastic waste in the world, according to a new report submitted to the federal government Wednesday that called for a national strategy to tackle the growing crisis.

Overall, the US contributed around 42 million metric tons (MMT) in plastic waste in 2016 — more than twice as much as China and more than the countries of the European Union combined, according to the analysis. 

On average, every American generates 130 kilograms (286 pounds) of plastic waste per year, with South Korea next on the list at 88 kilos per year.

Entitled “Reckoning with the U.S. Role in Global Ocean Plastic Waste,” the report was mandated by Congress as part of the Save Our Seas 2.0 Act, which became law in December 2020.

“The success of the 20th century miracle invention of plastics has also produced a global scale deluge of plastic waste seemingly everywhere we look,” wrote Margaret Spring, who chaired the committee of experts that compiled the report.

Global plastic production rose from 20 million metric tons in 1966 to 381 MMT in 2015, a 20-fold increase over half a century, the report said.

Initially, attention to ocean waste focused solely on ship and marine-based sources, but it is now known that almost any plastic on land has the potential to reach the oceans via rivers and streams, the report added.

Research has shown nearly a thousand species of marine life are susceptible to plastic entanglement or to ingesting microplastics, which then make their way through the food web back to humans.

The report said an estimated 8 MMT of plastic waste enters the world annually, “the equivalent of dumping a garbage truck of plastic waste into the ocean every minute.”

At the current rate, the amount of plastics discharged into the ocean could  reach up to 53 MMT per year by 2030, roughly half of the total weight of fish caught from the ocean annually, it said.

Part of the reason is that while the generation of plastic waste in municipal solid waste has exploded, particularly since 1980, the scale of recycling has not kept up, resulting in more and more plastic finding its way into landfills. 

The report offered a number of steps to address the crisis — especially reducing virgin plastic production.

Other suggested actions include using materials that degrade more quickly and are more easily recycled, the reduction of certain single-use plastics, and improved waste management, such as techniques to remove microplastics from wastewater.

Improving waste capture technology would stop plastics in waterways, while stemming plastic disposal directly into the ocean itself also remains a priority. 

“This is the most comprehensive and damning report on plastic pollution ever published,” said Judith Enk, president of the Beyond Plastics nonprofit.

“It is a code red for plastics in the ocean and documents how litter cleanups are not going to save the ocean,” she continued, adding it was urgent that policy makers and business leaders read the report and take action.

Inspired by how birds land and perch on branches, a team of engineers at Stanford University has built robotic graspers that can fit on drones, enabling them to catch objects and grip various surfaces.

The advance could allow flying robots to conserve power in situations where they might otherwise be required to hover — for example in search and rescue missions — or help ecologists collect data more easily in forests.

“We want to be able to land anywhere — that’s what makes it exciting from an engineering and robotics perspective,” David Lentink, who co-authored a paper about the design in Science Robotics released Wednesday, told AFP.

The team has dubbed their project “stereotyped nature-inspired aerial grasper,” or SNAG.

Roboticists often look to animals to resolve difficult engineering problems, but mimicking the way birds fly and perch after millions of years of evolution is no easy feat.

Branches differ in size, shape and texture. They can be covered in lichen or moss, or might be slippery from rain.

The team studied previous data they’d gathered on parrotlets — the second smallest species of parrot — using high-speed cameras to watch how the birds landed on perches of different sizes and materials, including wood, foam, sandpaper and Teflon.

The perches also contained sensors to capture the level of force associated with landing, roosting and takeoff.

What they found was the birds approached every landing the same way, using their feet to deal with any variability they encounter.

Specifically, birds curl their claws around a perch, and they also have soft, wrinkly toe pads that provide reliable friction.

The team had to build a grasper large enough to support a small quadcopter drone, and so modelled their design on the legs of a peregrine falcon.

It has a 3D-printed structure that took 20 iterations to perfect, with motors and fishing line standing in for muscles and tendon.

Its clutching action takes 20 milliseconds, and once wrapped around the branch, an accelerometer in the right foot tells the robot it has landed.

This in turn triggers a balancing algorithm, which tilts the bot forward to avoid falling, again like real birds.

The finished bird bot successfully caught items thrown at it like bean bags and tennis balls, and was able to land in real world conditions in the forests of Oregon.

Beyond the potential future applications for drones, Lentink said that building such robots can give rise to new insights into avian morphology.

For example, the team tried out the two most common toe arrangements seen in birds — three toes in front and one in the back, versus two in front and two in the back — and found they did not make a difference to the bot’s grasping ability.

This tells biologists that these evolutionary differences arose for other reasons.

“Part of the underlying motivation of this work was to create tools that we can use to study the natural world,” co-author William Roderick said in a statement.

The WHO warned Wednesday that a “toxic mix” of low rates of immunisation and testing were fanning new Covid-19 variants as Europe’s top official said it was time to “think about mandatory vaccination”. 

The Omicron variant, first reported to the World Health Organization by South Africa a week ago, has spread rapidly across continents, darkening economic forecasts and deepening fears of another difficult winter in the northern hemisphere.

“Globally, we have a toxic mix of low vaccine coverage, and very low testing — a recipe for breeding and amplifying variants,” said WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, reminding the world that the Delta variant “accounts for almost all cases”.

“We need to use the tools we already have to prevent transmission and save lives from Delta. And if we do that, we will also prevent transmission and save lives from Omicron,” he said.

So far, two dozen countries and territories have detected Omicron cases, including Australia, Brazil, Britain, Canada, Israel, Italy, Nigeria and Portugal. Tedros said he expected that number to grow.

The WHO says it could take several weeks to understand whether or not Omicron is more transmissible, and whether it results in more severe disease — plus the effectiveness of treatments and vaccines against the variant.

Its detection and spread, however, have highlighted that the now nearly two-year global fight against Covid-19 is far from over.

In Brussels, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said it was “understandable and appropriate” to discuss how to “encourage and potentially think about mandatory vaccination” in the bloc — although only individual member states can impose vaccine mandates.

Austria has already said it will make Covid jabs compulsory next February, Germany is mulling following suit and Greece on Tuesday said it will mandate vaccines for over-60s.

– Recovery now ‘precarious’ –

The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control recommended that children aged five to 11 who are at risk of severe Covid should be considered a “priority group” for vaccination.

Global economic body the OECD warned Omicron threatens the world’s recovery and lowered growth estimates for 2021 from 5.7 percent to 5.6 percent.

The Paris-based organisation said the recovery had “lost momentum and is becoming increasingly imbalanced” and would remain “precarious” until vaccines were deployed worldwide.

Dozens of countries have imposed travel restrictions mostly targeting southern African nations. Japan on Wednesday suspended new flight bookings into the country.

The WHO has opposed blocking travel from countries where new variants are first spotted, fearing it could dissuade diligent surveillance and reporting.

Rising infection rates have already seen some European governments reintroduce mandatory mask-wearing, social-distancing measures, curfews or lockdowns in a desperate attempt to limit hospitalisations, but leaving businesses fearing another grim Christmas.

Portugal, which has Europe’s highest vaccination rate, reintroduced measures to stem infections on Wednesday, including mask mandates in indoor settings, and aims to administer a third Covid jab to almost one-fifth of its population by the end of the year.

From Wednesday, every adult in Italy became eligible for a Covid booster shot, previously only open to those aged over 40. 

– ‘It’s scary’ –

Yet despite new restrictions recently introduced in Denmark, the country on Wednesday registered a record number of new Covid cases with 5,120 infections in the last 24 hours.

Besides Japan, other governments in Asia also expanded curbs, with Indonesia adding Hong Kong to its travel ban list, and Malaysia doing the same with Malawi.

“A lot of my neighbours and friends died of Covid-19,” said Jakarta resident Jan Pieter Tobing. “Coronavirus is the real deal. So the emergence of Omicron is very terrifying. Honestly, it’s scary.”

France bucked the trend by announcing flights from southern Africa could land on its territory from Saturday, but only allowing French and EU residents, diplomats and flight crews to disembark.

Even as governments acted unilaterally in imposing travel restrictions, WHO member states came together in Geneva to work on an international accord on handling the next pandemic.

An intergovernmental negotiating body will be established to reach an agreement on responding to future pandemics with a first meeting due before March 1, 2022.

While the European summer of fleeting Covid freedoms may be over, in the southern hemisphere, Pacific nation Fiji ended 615 days of international isolation on Wednesday and reopened to tourists.

Traditional dancers in grass skirts welcomed waving holidaymakers from Sydney, the first of an expected flood of desperately needed tourists in the coming weeks.

Fiji Airways chief executive Andre Viljoen said it was a “momentous” occasion for the country, where tourism accounts for about 40 percent of the economy.

burs-imm/jm/dl

Europe’s top official said Wednesday it was time to “think about mandatory vaccination” as the fast-spreading Omicron variant darkened forecasts and deepened fears of another difficult winter.

Ignoring a WHO warning against blanket travel bans, Japan suspended new flight bookings into the country as the OECD warned that Omicron threatens economic recovery and lowered the growth forecast for 2021.

Rising infection rates have already seen European governments reintroduce mandatory mask-wearing, social-distancing measures, curfews or lockdowns in a desperate attempt to limit hospitalisations, but leaving businesses fearing another grim Christmas.

In Brussels, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said it was “understandable and appropriate” to discuss how to “encourage and potentially think about mandatory vaccination” in the bloc — although only individual member states can impose vaccine mandates.

Austria has already said it will make Covid-19 jabs compulsory next February, Germany is mulling following suit and Greece on Tuesday said it will mandate vaccines for over-60s.

While it could take weeks to prove how infectious and resistant to current vaccines Omicron is, many countries have rushed to ramp up exisitng programmes, seeing them as the best line of defence.

From Wednesday, every adult in Italy became eligible for a Covid booster shot, previously only open to those aged over 40. Non-EU members Britain and Norway had already promised booster shots to all adults before the end of January and Easter respectively. 

So far, more than a dozen countries and territories have detected Omicron cases, including Australia, Brazil, Britain, Canada, Israel, Italy, Nigeria and Portugal. Dozens of countries have imposed travel restrictions mostly targeting southern African nations.

Global economic body the OECD warned Omicron threatens the world’s recovery and lowered growth estimates for 2021 from 5.7 percent to 5.6 percent.

The Paris-based organisation said the recovery had “lost momentum and is becoming increasingly imbalanced” and would remain “precarious” until vaccines were deployed worldwide.

– ‘It’s scary’ –

Japanese authorities, which had already tightened its tough border measures, on Wednesday said they had detected a second infection of the new strain — this time in a person arriving from Peru.

Other governments in Asia also expanded curbs, with Indonesia adding Hong Kong and Malaysia listing Malawi on their travel ban lists.

“A lot of my neighbors and friends died of Covid-19,” said Jakarta resident Jan Pieter Tobing. “Coronavirus is the real deal. So the emergence of Omicron is very terrifying. Honestly, it’s scary.”

France bucked the trend by announcing flights from southern Africa could land on its territory from Saturday, but only allowing French and EU residents, diplomats and flight crews to disembark.

Even as governments acted unilaterally in imposing travel restrictions, WHO member states came together in Geneva to work on an international accord on handling the next pandemic.

An intergovernmental negotiating body will be established to reach an agreement on responding to future pandemics with a first meeting due before March 1, 2022.

– Fiji welcomes back tourists –

Latin America reported its first two cases of the variant Tuesday — in people who travelled from South Africa to Brazil.

Nigeria, Africa’s most populous country, also reported its first Omicron cases on Wednesday.

US travel bans on eight southern African nations came into effect on Monday. US President Joe Biden said it “kind of depends” how long the measure would stay in place.

“We’re going to learn a lot more in the next couple weeks about the lethality of this virus, about how much it spreads, what we have to control it, etcetera,” he told reporters.

The WHO believes Omicron’s high number of mutations may make it more transmissible or resistant to vaccines, but it could take weeks to determine whether and to what extent the variant is vaccine-resistant.

Its detection and spread, however, have highlighted that the global fight against Covid-19 is far from over. 

Even nations with high vaccination rates are struggling to contain rising infection numbers and prevent health services from being overwhelmed.

While the European summer of fleeting Covid freedoms may be over, in the southern hemisphere, Pacific nation Fiji ended 615 days of international isolation on Wednesday and reopened to tourists.

Traditional dancers in grass skirts welcomed waving holidaymakers from Sydney, the first of an expected flood of desperately needed tourists in the coming weeks.

Fiji Airways chief executive Andre Viljoen said it was a “momentous” occasion for the country, where tourism accounts for about 40 percent of the economy.

burs-imm/jm

Global growth in renewable electricity production is set to accelerate but needs to speed up even more to meet targets to reach net zero carbon emission targets, the IEA said Wednesday.

In its latest report on the sector, the International Energy Agency said that the installation of new renewable electricity generation capacity is expected to hit a record 290 gigawatts (GW) this year.

Over the next five years, renewable capacity is expected to be added at a rate 50 percent higher than in the 2015-2020 period.

In five years time global renewable electricity capacity is expected to have increased by 60 percent from 2020 levels to 4,800 GW, the IEA said. 

For comparison, this is the equivalent to the current total global power capacity of fossil fuels and nuclear combined, it added.

However, the IEA, which advises industrialised nations on energy policy, said that “even this faster deployment would still fall well short of what would be needed in a global pathway to net zero emissions by mid-century.” 

Nations are aiming to reach net zero carbon emissions in order have a chance to keep the rise in global temperatures well under two percent as set by the 2015 Paris climate accord.

It said to meet this goal renewable power capacity capacity would have to grow at almost twice as fast as it expects.

The IEA said governments could further accelerate the growth of renewables by facilitating permitting, integration into the grid, and access to finance. 

Rising commodity prices are a double-edged sword for renewables.

“The high commodity and energy prices we are seeing today pose new challenges for the renewable industry, but elevated fossil fuel prices also make renewables even more competitive,” IEA executive director Fatih Birol said in a statement.

The Austrian government announced Wednesday it has halted several highway construction projects, an initiative by the Greens, a junior coalition partner, to fight climate change.

The environment ministry, headed by Greens politician Leonore Gewessler, earlier this year launched a review of all new road construction plans by giant Asfinag, raising tensions within the coalition led by the conservatives.

Among those ordered stopped on Wednesday is a planned eight-kilometre (five-mile) highway tunnel under part of the Lobau national park to ease traffic flow east of Vienna.

The project has led to protests — Gewessler took part in some of them herself before the Greens entered government — and legal filings to prevent its construction.

“The fight against the climate crisis is our historic duty… More roads mean more cars, more traffic,” Gewessler told a press conference, adding that she did not want to leave children a future “full of cement, full of destruction”.

Gewessler added that the government was open to work with Asfinag and other stakeholders to find alternatives to the cancelled projects and ensure mobility.

Vienna Mayor Michael Ludwig said the city would study the ministry’s decision, insisting the Lobau highway tunnel would not endanger the national park and was essential to ease traffic and connect the capital’s outskirts.

Activists welcomed the ministry’s ruling, with the Fridays for Future grouping saying it should represent a “climate policy tipping point”.

They vowed to keep up their months-long occupation of Lobau project-related construction sites until the city announces their dismantlement.

According to the Greens, the Lobau, a vast floodplain along the Danube, is “the only example of a national park in the heart of a European capital”.

The Greens joined the conservatives in 2020 to rule the Alpine EU member of nine million as junior partners in the country’s first such coalition government despite its hard line on immigration.

The government aims to make the country carbon neutral — balancing greenhouse gas emissions against measures that absorb or eliminate carbon — by 2040.

Japan suspended all new flight bookings into the country from Wednesday in response to Omicron, ignoring a World Health Organization warning against blanket travel bans as the new coronavirus strain spread further around the world.

Brazil reported the first cases in Latin America of Omicron, which has pushed dozens of countries to impose travel restrictions — mostly targeting southern African nations.

And while the likely futility of such broad curbs was underscored by Dutch authorities reporting that Omicron was present in the country before South Africa reported its first cases on November 25, governments pressed ahead with emergency travel measures.

“We have asked airlines to halt accepting all new incoming flight reservations for one month starting December 1,” a Japanese transport ministry official told AFP, adding that existing bookings would not be affected.

Japan confirmed its first Omicron case on Tuesday, and it had already tightened its tough Covid border measures. 

Japanese authorities on Wednesday announced they had detected a second infection of the new strain in an arriving traveller — this time in a person arriving from Peru.

Governments elsewhere in Asia also continued to expand curbs Wednesday, with Indonesia adding Hong Kong and Malaysia listing Malawi on their travel ban lists.

Hong Kong placed Japan, Portugal and Sweden on its highest travel restriction category after the discovery of Omicron there.

These came despite the WHO saying Tuesday that such “blanket” moves risked doing more harm than good.

In a travel advisory, it warned the bans could ultimately dissuade countries from sharing data about the evolving virus.

But it did advise unvaccinated people vulnerable to Covid-19, including over-60s, to avoid travel to areas with community transmission of the virus.

WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said it was understandable for countries to seek to protect their citizens “against a variant we don’t yet fully understand”.

But he called for “rational, proportional risk-reduction measures”.

– Vaccine-resistant? –

So far, well over a dozen countries and territories have detected Omicron cases, including Australia, Britain, Canada, Israel, Italy and Portugal.

Latin America reported its first two cases of the variant Tuesday — in people who travelled from South Africa to Brazil.

Nigeria, Africa’s most populous country, also reported its first Omicron cases on Wednesday.

The same day, Canada banned travellers from Nigeria, Malawi and Egypt.

President Joe Biden said the US travel bans on just the southern African nations would stay in place, without referencing the other places where Omicron has been detected.

Asked how long travel restrictions that took effect Monday on South Africa and seven other southern African countries would remain, Biden said it “kind of depends”.

“We’re going to learn a lot more in the next couple weeks about the lethality of this virus, about how much it spreads, what we have to control it, etcetera,” he told reporters.

Asked if any expansion of the travel restrictions to other countries could be made suddenly, as happened under former president Donald Trump, Biden said: “Unlike Trump I don’t shock our allies.”

The WHO believes the high number of mutations on this variant may make it more transmissible or resistant to vaccines, but it could take weeks to determine whether and to what extent Omicron is vaccine-resistant.

Its detection and spread, however, have highlighted that the global fight against Covid-19 is far from over.

– Covid fight far from over –

The variant emerged as much of the northern hemisphere was already bracing for a new winter wave of the pandemic — leaving even nations with high vaccination rates struggling to contain rising infection numbers and prevent health services from being overwhelmed.

Governments, particularly in Western Europe, have already reintroduced mandatory mask-wearing, social-distancing measures, curfews or lockdowns — leaving businesses fearing another grim Christmas.

Greece went ahead Tuesday in making vaccines compulsory for over-60s, while Norway will offer booster shots to all adults before Easter, as preferable to a lockdown.

Britain has set a target of delivering third jabs to all adults within two months.

While the European summer of fleeting Covid freedoms may be over, in the southern hemisphere, the Pacific island of Fiji ended 615 days of international isolation on Wednesday and reopened to tourists.

Traditional dancers in grass skirts welcomed waving holidaymakers from Sydney, the first of an expected flood of desperately needed tourists in the coming weeks.

Fiji Airways chief executive Andre Viljoen said it was a “momentous” occasion for the country, where tourism accounts for about 40 percent of the economy.

burs-qan/ser

Archeologists in Peru working on a site in the outskirts of the capital Lima have unearthed a mummy believed to be between 800 and 1,200 years old — and, surprisingly, bound with rope.

The remains are thought to be of a man aged 18-22 at the time of his death, with his hands covering his face.

The mummy was found in a burial chamber that is about three meters (10 feet) long and at a depth of about 1.4 meters at the dig site in Cajamarquilla, about 24 kilometers (15 miles) east of Lima.

Archeologist Pieter Van Dalen, who is in charge of the Cajamarquilla project, called the find “peculiar and unique.”

“The mummy would have been buried sometime between 800 and 1200 AD,” he said — meaning it would be at least 800 years old.

On one side of the mummy, experts found the skeleton of an Andean guinea pig and what appears to be a dog, according to the researchers at the University of San Marcos.

Traces of corn and other vegetables were found in the burial chamber.

Cajamarquilla was an urban center that could have been home to 10,000-20,000 people, Van Dalen explained. 

The city was built in around 200 BC and was occupied until about 1500.

The World Health Organization has warned blanket travel bans will not prevent the spread of Omicron, as more countries rushed to impose curbs and the first cases of the new Covid strain were detected in Latin America.

In the week since the new virus strain was reported by South Africa, dozens of countries around the world have responded with travel restrictions — most targeting southern African nations.

But the World Health Organization warned Tuesday that “blanket” travel bans risked doing more harm than good, just as Canada expanded its restrictions.

In a travel advisory, the WHO warned the bans could ultimately dissuade countries from sharing data about the evolving virus.

But it did advise that unvaccinated people vulnerable to Covid-19, including over-60s, should avoid travel to areas with community transmission of the virus.

WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said it was understandable for countries to seek to protect their citizens “against a variant we don’t yet fully understand”.

But he called for the global response to be “calm, coordinated and coherent”, urging nations to “take rational, proportional risk-reduction measures”.

The likely futility of broad travel restrictions was underscored as Dutch authorities reported that Omicron was present in the country before South Africa officially reported its first cases on November 25.

The new variant — whose high number of mutations the WHO believes may make it more transmissible or resistant to vaccines — was found in two Dutch test samples from November 19 and 23, with one having no travel history.

So far, well over a dozen countries and territories have detected cases, including Australia, Britain, Canada, Hong Kong, Israel, Italy and Portugal.

Latin America reported its first two cases Tuesday — in people who travelled from South Africa to Brazil — and a first case was confirmed in Japan, one day after it barred all foreign arrivals.

However, US President Joe Biden said the travel bans on just the southern African nations would stay in place, without referencing the other places where Omicron has been detected. 

Asked how long travel restrictions that took effect Monday on South Africa and seven other southern African countries would remain, Biden said it “kind of depends”.

“We’re going to learn a lot more in the next couple weeks about the lethality of this virus, about how much it spreads, what we have to control it, etcetera,” he told reporters.

Asked if any expansion of the travel restrictions to other countries could be made suddenly, as happened under former president Donald Trump, Biden said: “Unlike Trump I don’t shock our allies.”

In Asia, governments continued Wednesday to expand restrictions, including with Indonesia adding Hong Kong to its travel ban list alongside various African nations.

Hong Kong also added three more countries – Japan, Portugal and Sweden — to its highest travel restriction category after Omicron cases were discovered in those nations.

– Vaccine-resistant? –

While much is still unknown about the Omicron variant — it could take weeks to determine whether and to what extent it is vaccine-resistant — it has highlighted that the global fight against Covid-19 is far from over.

Omicron has emerged as much of the northern hemisphere was already bracing for a new winter wave of the pandemic — leaving even nations with high vaccination rates struggling to contain rising infection numbers and prevent health services from being overwhelmed.

Governments, particularly in Western Europe, have already reintroduced mandatory mask-wearing, social-distancing measures, curfews or lockdowns — leaving businesses fearing another grim Christmas.

Greece went ahead Tuesday in making vaccines compulsory for over-60s, while Norway will offer booster shots to all adults before Easter, as preferable to a lockdown.

Britain has set a target of delivering third jabs to all adults within two months.

While the European summer of fleeting Covid freedoms may be over, in the southern hemisphere, the Pacific island of Fiji ended 615 days of international isolation on Wednesday and reopened to tourists.

Traditional dancers in grass skirts welcomed waving holidaymakers from Sydney, the first of an expected flood of desperately needed tourists in the coming weeks.

Fiji Airways chief executive Andre Viljoen said it was a “momentous” occasion, where tourism accounts for about 40 percent of the economy.

“The international border reopening will reignite Fiji’s economy,” he told reporters.

burs-kma/jah

The World Health Organization has warned blanket travel bans will not prevent the spread of Omicron, as more countries rushed to impose curbs and the first cases of the new Covid strain were detected in Latin America.

In the week since the new virus strain was reported by South Africa, dozens of countries around the world have responded with travel restrictions — most targeting southern African nations.

But the World Health Organization warned Tuesday that “blanket” travel bans risked doing more harm than good, just as Canada expanded its restrictions.

In a travel advisory, the WHO warned the bans could ultimately dissuade countries from sharing data about the evolving virus.

But it did advise that unvaccinated people vulnerable to Covid-19, including over-60s, should avoid travel to areas with community transmission of the virus.

WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said it was understandable for countries to seek to protect their citizens “against a variant we don’t yet fully understand”.

But he called for the global response to be “calm, coordinated and coherent”, urging nations to “take rational, proportional risk-reduction measures”.

The likely futility of broad travel restrictions was underscored as Dutch authorities reported that Omicron was present in the country before South Africa officially reported its first cases on November 25.

The new variant — whose high number of mutations the WHO believes may make it more transmissible or resistant to vaccines — was found in two Dutch test samples from November 19 and 23, with one having no travel history.

So far, well over a dozen countries and territories have detected cases, including Australia, Britain, Canada, Hong Kong, Israel, Italy and Portugal.

Latin America reported its first two cases Tuesday — in people who travelled from South Africa to Brazil — and a first case was confirmed in Japan, one day after it barred all foreign arrivals.

However, US President Joe Biden said the travel bans on just the southern African nations would stay in place, without referencing the other places where Omicron has been detected. 

Asked how long travel restrictions that took effect Monday on South Africa and seven other southern African countries would remain, Biden said it “kind of depends”.

“We’re going to learn a lot more in the next couple weeks about the lethality of this virus, about how much it spreads, what we have to control it, etcetera,” he told reporters.

Asked if any expansion of the travel restrictions to other countries could be made suddenly, as happened under former president Donald Trump, Biden said: “Unlike Trump I don’t shock our allies.”

In Asia, governments continued Wednesday to expand restrictions, including with Indonesia adding Hong Kong to its travel ban list alongside various African nations.

Hong Kong also added three more countries – Japan, Portugal and Sweden — to its highest travel restriction category after Omicron cases were discovered in those nations.

– Vaccine-resistant? –

While much is still unknown about the Omicron variant — it could take weeks to determine whether and to what extent it is vaccine-resistant — it has highlighted that the global fight against Covid-19 is far from over.

Omicron has emerged as much of the northern hemisphere was already bracing for a new winter wave of the pandemic — leaving even nations with high vaccination rates struggling to contain rising infection numbers and prevent health services from being overwhelmed.

Governments, particularly in Western Europe, have already reintroduced mandatory mask-wearing, social-distancing measures, curfews or lockdowns — leaving businesses fearing another grim Christmas.

Greece went ahead Tuesday in making vaccines compulsory for over-60s, while Norway will offer booster shots to all adults before Easter, as preferable to a lockdown.

Britain has set a target of delivering third jabs to all adults within two months.

While the European summer of fleeting Covid freedoms may be over, in the southern hemisphere, the Pacific island of Fiji ended 615 days of international isolation on Wednesday and reopened to tourists.

Traditional dancers in grass skirts welcomed waving holidaymakers from Sydney, the first of an expected flood of desperately needed tourists in the coming weeks.

Fiji Airways chief executive Andre Viljoen said it was a “momentous” occasion, where tourism accounts for about 40 percent of the economy.

“The international border reopening will reignite Fiji’s economy,” he told reporters.

burs-kma/jah