also in the programme: we report from yemen as the war reaches a turning point. houthi rebels are gaining ground in the seven year conflict a war that s caused shocking levels of suffering and forced many into makeshift desert camps. the people here are suffering because of the fault lines that run right through the middle east. and barbados has spent its first day as a republic with a president not the queen as its head of state. we ll be live from the capital. there s evidence the omicron variant of covid was present in europe days before international travel restrictions were introduced and before it was first reported by south africa. a lot to show you on the pandemic. let s start with bbc health correspondent laura foster. we had thought that the first cases
chance of the vaccines will be cross protective to some extent probably with some reduced efficacy, but hopefully with still a fairly good efficacy, especially against severe illness and death. but we just have to wait and see. it ll take 2 3 weeks to get any of the answers, and multiple people are rushing to get answers to those questions. as well as looking at how effective the vaccines are with omicron, vaccine makers are also saying they could update the vaccines to deal with it if need be. moderna says a reformulated vaccine could be ready by early 2022 . pfizer says a new version could be rolled out within 100 days . oxford university, wich developed the astrazeneca vaccine, says it can rapidly update its jab, but hasn t put a date on that. as laura foster was saying just now health officials in the netherlands have found omicron in samples taken before the variant was first