Politics

Governments scrambled to limit the transmission of Omicron, the latest strain of covid-19, which initial evidence suggests spreads faster than earlier mutations, including Delta. First identified in South Africa, Omicron has been detected in dozens of countries. The World Health Organisation warned that Omicron poses a “very high” global risk. Joe Biden said it was “a cause for concern, not a cause for panic”. The governments of Israel and Japan stopped foreigners from crossing their borders. Restrictions on travel from southern Africa were imposed by America, Britain, the European Union, South Korea and a host of other countries.