despite the discovery of the omicron variant of coronavirus. from tuesday, people in england will once again have to wear masks in shops and on public transport the health secretary says ministers acted as quickly as they could. what we do know is much more about our own country and i think speed at which we acted could not have been any faster. the netherlands confirms that 13 people with covid on a flight that on a flight that arrived at amsterdam s schipol airport from south africa on friday have the new variant of covid 19. 66,000 people remain without power across scotland two days after the gale force winds created by storm arwen. and there are about 16,000 properties still without power in the north west of england, the majority in cumbria. israel says it will ban the entry of all foreigners making it the first country to shut its borders completely in response to the new 0micron variant. european ministers minus the uk home secretary priti patel meet for tal
coronavirus variant. he s called on people to come forward for booster vaccinations and is urgently considering widening the booster program. two people who tested positive for the new variant remain in isolation. as our health correspondent anna collinson reports. the borders have already been breached by omicron with two cases of the heavily mutated covid variant detected in england, scientist and the government fears there may be more. the threat it poses is currently unknown but there are concerns limitations mean it may spread more quickly. the south african doctor who first spotted omicron says she found many patients who tested positive with the new variant displayed a very mild symptoms, no cough, more tiredness. i think you already have it in your country, not even knowing it. your doctors might be more focused on the delta symptoms and missing these because it is easy to miss them. if it was not for the fact we ve not seen the covid cases this past few weeks we woul
presumably found among 61 people who tested positive for covid on arrival at amsterdam s airport. more analysis is being done to find out for sure. while the variant is being studied extensively, we don t yet know whether it s anymore deadly than the regular virus or whether it can blunt vaccine efficacy or natural immunity. but scientists fear it could be more contagious. dozens of countries have already banned or limited travel from parts of south africa and several of its neighbors where there are confirmed cases of the variant. on saturday, british prime minister boris johnson gave a sobering description of the possible threat. here he is. as always with a new variant, there are many things that we just cannot know at this early stage. but our scientists are learning more hour by hour. and it does appear that omnicron spreads very rapidly and can be spread between people who are double vaccinated. there is also a very extensive mutation, which means it diverges quite si
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Variants and alerting the world. twl at least two cases have been discovered in the uk and that s prompting immediate goveaction the government. reporter: swwarning signs. boris johnson announced up in covid restrictions as fears and questions grow over the new omnicron coronavirus variant. johnson says the variant has already been detected in the uk and scientists warn this highly mutated strain, first identified circulating in countries in southern africa, could challenge some of the hard-fought advances already made against this virus. our scientists are learning more, hour by hour. and it does appear that omnicron spreads very rapidly. and can be spread between people who are double vaccinated. england s chief medical officer, chris witty, says the possibility that vaccines may not be as effective against the omnicron variant is what is galvanizing the government