As the busiest travel season approaches, the U.S. is enforcing stricter COVID-19 testing and other travel restrictions after 43 cases of the Omicron variant were identified in the country during the first eight days of December.

San Francisco reported the nation’s first confirmed Omicron case Dec. 1. Eighteen other cases have since been documented statewide since then.

“There’s more panic than information around this variant,” said California Gov. Gavin Newsom at a Dec. 1 press conference. “Doubling down on what we’re doing is the most important message. We can avoid shutting down our schools or businesses.”

Meanwhile, the state of California has seen an increase in transmission for other variants of the virus; the daily average of newly reported infections has risen more than 30% since before Thanksgiving. The number of Californians hospitalized with COVID-19 also has climbed, interrupting weeks of mostly steady declines. 

On the other side of the globe, Omicron is speeding through Europe with cases doubling every three days. Approximately 4,713 cases were confirmed Dec. 13 in the U.K., and health experts warn this number is likely much higher — likely in the ten thousands — and the number will only continue to grow.

There has been one death from Omicron so far in the U.K., but none in the U.S. To keep cases in the U.S. low, the administration of President Joe Biden has rolled out intensive travel bans from eight nations in southern Africa, where the Omicron variant was first discovered.

“While we hope that travel restrictions can slow the speed of Omicron, it cannot prevent it,” Biden said in a statement Nov. 29. “But, here’s what it does: it gives us time. It gives us time to take more action, to move quicker (and) to make sure people understand you have to get your vaccine.”

The travel ban includes Botswana, Eswatini, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa and Zimbabwe.

The U.S. is also implementing stricter guidelines for all incoming international travelers to provide proof of a negative COVID-19 test taken within a day before the flight. The previous requirement allowed a test to be taken within 72 hours of the flight. Foreign travelers are also required to be fully vaccinated, and there is no requirement for post-arrival testing or quarantine at this time. 

However, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is encouraging all travelers to get tested after arriving in the U.S. and unvaccinated travelers to self-quarantine as well.

In order to lessen the spread of COVID-19 during the holiday travel season, John Wayne Airport in Santa Ana will be providing free COVID-19 testing kits at the airport.

“This is another example of the important work we have been doing throughout these past two years to protect our community during COVID-19,” Andrew Do, Orange County Supervisor for the First District, said in a Dec. 3 statement. “Bringing COVID-19 tests to travelers will only help to encourage more people to keep getting tested to support early detection and prevent COVID-19 from spreading.”

Anthony Fauci, chief medical advisor to Biden, warned Omicron may spark a fifth wave of COVID-19 infection. But increasing the vaccination rate and encouraging the booster shot could soften the blow, he said.

“We certainly have the potential to go into a fifth wave,” Fauci told CBS in a Nov. 28 interview. “The fifth wave — or the magnitude of any increase, if you want to call it that — it will …  really be dependent upon what we do in the next few weeks to a couple of months.”

In Australia, researchers and scientists have discovered a new Omicron lineage earlier this month in a traveler who returned from South Africa.

This version is more difficult to detect. Peter Aiken, Australia chief health officer, told reporters the new lineage is similar enough to Omicron to be officially classified as such, but also has some key differences that have caused health authorities to identify it as a “stealth” version of Omicron.

“We don’t know enough about it as to what that means then as far as clinical severity (and) vaccine effectiveness,” Aitken said. “We now have Omicron and Omicron-like.”

In the U.S., Omicron has been identified in 31 states as of Dec. 13: Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Iowa, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, Washington and Wisconsin.

Omicron has also been detected in approximately 70 countries.

This is a developing story. Follow The Panther on social media and at www.thepanthernewspaper.org for updates.