Washington: US President Joe Biden said that Omicron Covid – 19 variant is not a cause for panic. Speaking at the G7 Health Ministers meet on Monday he called for urgent action to combat the newly identified Omicron Covid – 19 variant spreading across the world.

Biden told Americans he did not foresee new lockdowns or extending travel restrictions for now because of Omicron. While no deaths have yet been reported from Omicron, and it remains unclear how infectious and how resistant the strain may prove to vaccines. Nearly two years after the first cases were recorded, its emergence underscores how besieged the world remains by Covid – 19.

G7 Health Ministers during emergency talks said the global community is faced the threat of a new at a first evaluation highly transmissible variant of Covid – 19 which requires urgent action. Australia and Japan led the growing list of countries imposing fresh travel restrictions or slamming shut their borders as the new strain identified last week spreads rapidly to Europe, Asia and North America.

Many Governments, particularly in Western Europe had already struggled with rapid rises in cases and have reintroduced mandatory mask wearing, social distancing measures, curfews or lockdowns leaving businesses fearing another grim Christmas. WHO said the overall risk from Omicron was very high and warned that any major surge would put pressure on health systems and cause more deaths?

South African scientists said they had detected the new variant with at least 10 mutations, compared with three for Beta or two for Delta the strain that hit the global recovery and sent millions worldwide back into lockdown. Biden stressed that the US was in a good position to control Omicron’s spread.

We have more tools today to fight the variant than we’ve ever had before, he said. Chief Medical Adviser Anthony Fauci expects current vaccines to work against the new variant with boosters enhancing protection.