to sell that from from bill and sell the perks of it and it s going to take time to be implemented. it does come as his top code of officials are briefing reporters on what they know about the new variant and this is something that scientists are very much evaluating and they are in touch with labs across the united states and they wait to see if this variant is here present in the united states because we know officials said they could be here and if not here yet they they could be here. they are using test samples to see if it s happened. how much it s here will be key to try to contain the spread which is a big factor of what they are do, and so as they are waiting to get more details and able to provide further updates to the public about this, the one thing you re seeing the white house do is push those booster shots, and you are right, ana. they did change that guidance
emma simpson, bbc news. this is outside source live from the bbc newsroom. our lead story is officials believe the new covid 19 variant was in europe earlier than thought. test samples show omicron cases in the netherlands 11 days ago. now to antarctica, and efforts are about to get under way to drill a narrow hole down into the ice, removing a core three kilometres long to enable scientists to learn about the earth s distant past. the samples will allow scientists to learn more about the frequency of previous ice ages as long as 1.5 million years ago. a european team is about to set up its equipment near a joint italian french base station on the east antartctic plateau. this video shows
came to the netherlands over the weekend, but it now transpires that there were two test samples between the 19th and the 23rd. why am i telling you those dates? that s because south africa reported its findings, which started this omicron thing off, on the 24th. so, should you be alarmed that cases were actually in the netherlands before south africa said anything? well, no, actually, the world health organisation says they found the first in a specimen collected on the 9th of november. so, although we only heard about this the other week, it s actually been around for longer. early evidence suggests omicron is more transmissible than many forms of covid. and there are questions about how vaccines will cope with it. moderna makes one of the most used vaccines. its chief executive has told the ft. he goes on.
community is prepared. over the next week or two we ll have answers to these questions. do you think we re doing enough testing in the united states to find out if this variant is here, and if so, how widespread it is? unfortunately, caitlyn, we ve under performed in terms of genomic testing so far. we re doing better than before but we re not quite at that level. no, i think it s quite possible that the omicron variant is here, we haven t picked it up yet. i think if we can pick up the pace of genomic sequencing, hopefully we ll identify it soon. the cdc says no confirmed cases but they are still trying to figure that out and examining more test samples. dr. peter hotez, thank you for joining us tonight. thank you. coming up in the cnn newsroom. a moving moment to remember the waukesha christmas tragedy victims. also ahead, a blockbuster
minutes. things are running smoothly. meanwhile, delta, the hometown airline, is expected to continue their flights to south africa despite the travel restrictions going into effect on monday. cai caitlyn? reporter: we know south african leaders are upset. nick valencia in atlanta, joe johns, thank you for updating us on the latest. at least a dozen countries have detected cases of the variant. the countries in the red have detected cases of omicron. they are still evaluating test samples. scientists in south africa first alerted the global community about the severity of this new variant about four days ago. it has quickly become a major concern around the world as the world lieders wait to learn more about this. david mckenzie is in johannesburg. they ve been pretty verbal about their concerns about the response. they say their scientists are the ones who sequenced this,