Covid: New ‘variant of concern’ Omicron fuels global fear of another virus surge

The world reacted with alarm Friday to the highly mutated new corona virus variant discovered in Southern Africa , as the United States , the European Union and nations across the globes imposed new travel restrictions, financial markets swooned , and visions of finally emerging from the pandemic started to dim.

Just two days after the world learned of the variant, the W.H.O officially labelled  it a  “Variant of Concern”   its most serious category- the first since the Delta variant which emerged a year ago.