From abroad requires a negative covid test one day before departure, and that includes u.s. citizens. cnn s salma abdelaziz has more. the omicron variant has put the world on edge, triggering new travel bans and lockdown measures. more than 35 countries have reported cases of the coronavirus variant. doctors and scientists are racing to gather data to determine if it s more transmissible, causes more severe illness, and whether it could impact the efficacy of vaccines. some of the earlier posts that we ve had, starting with the province where it was first observed and across the provinces of south africa, we do think that it is quite infectious, quite transmissible. it is something to worry about. certainly, we didn t want to see another variant emerge and spread around the world at this stage of the pandemic. certainly not what we wanted. but we re not entirely surprised. and i think we re much better prepared to handle it. reporter: but many countries are taking no chances.
Listening to lawmakers earlier this week. have a listen. the recent rise in covid-19 cases and the emerngence of the omicron variant increased uncertainty for inflation. all right. so how will police station, the pandemic, and possible concerns about this new variant affect the way consumers feel and spend their money going forward? yeah, it s a really interesting time for inflation to kick in again. there are younger generations, the gen-zers and even earlier generations that haven t basically seen policeinflation. all of a sudden, we have to live in a world in which inflation is a factor again, which we don t only know from the history textbooks, from actual real experiences. and i think those people for whom this experience is new will be quite shocked in their views of the world. seeing prices increase in a
His single life now saving multiple others. justin was 17. the latest coronavirus variant, omicron, is moving around the globe with astonishing speed. it s a wave that s maybe feudal by a piece of genetic code that omicron copied from another highly contagious coronavirus, the common cold. in south africa, where omicron was first found, covid cases have quadrupled since tuesday. it s now been detected in at least 40 countries and the u.s. is no exception. cases have now been confirmed in at least 16 states. but experts insist there s no reason to panic. no deaths have been reported from this strain and so far most cases have been mild. still, many countries are scrambling to impose new rules and travel restrictions. as of monday, entering the u.s.
Johnson received his booster and urged residents to do the same, as soon as possible. the target that we ve set ourselves is to offer a booster to everyone eligible by the end of january. and as with the first jabs, we ll be working lu people by age group, going down in five-year bans. while it may be a few more weeks until scientists know more about omicron, the world continues to act fast to fight the latest obstacle in the coronavirus pandemic. all right. for more on this, let s bring in salma, who is in london. so salma, there s still a lot of doubt as to whether all of these restrictions will actually work. absolutely, kim, there s a couple of different tools in the tool box right now for governments to apply and use. key among them is boosting and vaccinating. there s still a huge portion of the region that is unvaccinated. the president of the european