Sri Lanka will not allow passengers from South African countries to disembark at BIA.
President directs SPC to import oral treatment for Covid 19- Molnupiravir.
Omicron or the B.1.1.529 variant described by the WHO as a variant of concern was – first detected in South Africa this week.
Since then it was fond in Botswana, Hong Kong, Israel, and Belgium – is believed to have 50 mutations, including over 30 on the spike protein and 10 on the receptor binding domain.
The spike protein is the target of most current COVID-19 vaccines and is what the virus uses to unlock access to our body’s cells. Researchers are still trying to confirm whether this makes it more transmissible or lethal than earlier variants, and if existing vaccines can protect against the strain.
The B.1.1.529 strain has been labelled a ‘variant of concern’ by the World Health Organization (WHO), which has renamed it Omicron. The ‘variant of concern’ tag puts it in the high-alert category, with the globally-dominant Delta, plus its weaker rivals Alpha, Beta and Gamma.
Meanwhile, the government of Sri Lanka will not allow any passengers with a travel history for the last fourteen days to South Africa, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Lesotho and Swaziland to disembark from midnight today.
In another move to arrest the spread of Covid 19 the President had directed the State Pharmaceutical Corporation to import the oral treatment for Covid 19-Molnupiravir as soon as possible since it will reduce the hospitalization considerably.
