Technologies

US to restrict travel from South Africa, other countries due to new COVID variant

The WHO says early evidence «suggests an increased risk of reinfection» with the omicron variant.

For the most up-to-date news and information about the coronavirus pandemic, visit the WHO and CDC websites.

The US will restrict travel from South Africa and seven other countries starting on Monday. The move comes amid fears that a new COVID variant discovered in South Africa may be more transmissible and vaccine-resistant than the delta variant.

President Joe Biden was briefed on Friday by Dr. Anthony Fauci, his chief medial adviser, and other members of the COVID response team about the variant. The new variant had already led Israel, Singapore and several European nations, including Britain, to block travel to southern Africa.

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«As a precautionary measure until we have more information, I am ordering additional air travel restrictions from South Africa and seven other countries,» said Biden in a statement. «As we move forward, we will continue to be guided by what the science and my medical team advises.»

The US air travel restrictions will apply to travelers from South Africa, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Namibia, Lesotho, Eswatini, Mozambique and Malawi. It’s unclear how long the restrictions will be in place.

The variant, which was given the name omicron by the World Health Organization on Friday, was first identified as B.1.1.529 in South Africa on Tuesday. Scientists are concerned about it because of its high number of mutations. Their worry is that vaccines designed to target previous COVID-19 variants may be less effective.

The WHO acknowledged in a Friday release that the variant was «concerning» and noted that preliminary evidence «suggests an increased risk of reinfection with this variant.»

There were 22 known cases of omicron as of Thursday, according to South Africa’s National Institute for Communicable Diseases. It’s also been detected in Botswana, South Africa’s neighbor to the north, as well as Israel, Belgium and Hong Kong, which are thousands of miles away.

«This variant did surprise us,» Tulio de Oliveira, director of the KwaZulu-Natal Research and Innovation Sequencing Platform, said in a press conference on Thursday. «It has a big jump in evolution, many more mutations than we expected, especially after a very severe third wave of delta.»

US stocks tumbled Friday on the news of the variant, CNBC reported.

A ‘variant of concern’

In the nearly two years since the first outbreaks of the disease, there have been more than 260 million cases of COVID-19 reported worldwide, resulting in more than 5.1 million deaths, according to the Johns Hopkins University COVID-19 dashboard. Vaccines from Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson have proved highly effective in restraining the spread of the coronavirus that causes COVID-19 and in easing the effects for those who contract it. But vaccination rates vary widely around the globe and in individual nations.

Whether the mutations of Omicronwill translate to a more dangerous, transmissible and vaccine-resistant form of COVID-19 is as yet unknown. COVID-19 constantly mutates, and many of those mutations don’t substantially affect the virus.

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«We don’t know very much about this yet,» Maria Van Kerkhove, the WHO’s technical lead of COVID, said in a livestream on Thursday. «What we do know is that this variant has a large number of mutations. And the concern is that when you have so many mutations, it can have an impact on how the virus behaves.»

«It will take a few weeks for us to understand what impact this variant will have.»

On Thursday, UK Secretary for State Health Sajid Javid announced that South Africa and five other southern African countries — Namibia, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Lesotho and Eswatini — would be added to the UK’s travel red list. Flights to those countries are being stopped, while travelers returning to the UK from those countries will have to quarantine.

Singapore, Italy, France and Israel have also placed Mozambique on their red lists, The New York Times noted. Dubai said it’ll restrict entrance to travelers from those countries starting Monday.

Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Union’s executive arm, tweeted Friday that her commission would also propose restricting air travel to European countries from southern Africa.

The vaccine co-developed by Pfizer and BioNTech is the most widely administered in the US, according to CDC data, and a BioNTech spokesperson told Reuters it’ll quickly be able to determine how effective the vaccine is against the variant.

«We expect more data from the laboratory tests in two weeks at the latest. These data will provide more information about whether B.1.1.529 could be an escape variant that may require an adjustment of our vaccine if the variant spreads globally,» the spokesperson said Friday. An escape variant would resist the targeted immune response caused by vaccination.

That a new variant has emerged in Africa comes as little surprise to many epidemiologists. Viruses, like the one that causes COVID, mutate during replication. In places with low vaccinations and high case numbers, new variants are more likely to arise, as in the case of delta’s emergence from India. African countries have low vaccination rates, and huge parts of the population are too poor to miss work via shelter-in-place orders or to seek medical help. South Africa is the richest country in Africa, yet only has a double vaccination rate of around 23%.

On Friday, Biden said the emergence of the omicron variant underscores the need for «global vaccinations» to end the pandemic. He urged officials attending a World Trade Organization meeting next week to waive intellectual property protections for COVID vaccines, a position the president endorsed earlier this year.

CNET’s Carrie Mihalcik contributed to this report.

Technologies

Today’s NYT Mini Crossword Answers for Friday, Dec. 26

Here are the answers for The New York Times Mini Crossword for Dec. 26.

Looking for the most recent Mini Crossword answer? Click here for today’s Mini Crossword hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Wordle, Strands, Connections and Connections: Sports Edition puzzles.

Need some help with today’s Mini Crossword? Some of the clues are tough today — I thought maybe 1-Across was referring to the Grinch, or even Oscar the Grouch, but was I ever wrong! Read on for all the answers. And if you could use some hints and guidance for daily solving, check out our Mini Crossword tips.

If you’re looking for today’s Wordle, Connections, Connections: Sports Edition and Strands answers, you can visit CNET’s NYT puzzle hints page.

Read more: Tips and Tricks for Solving The New York Times Mini Crossword

Let’s get to those Mini Crossword clues and answers.

Mini across clues and answers

1A clue: Furry and green, say
Answer: MOSSY

6A clue: State known for its potatoes
Answer: IDAHO

7A clue: Like a faithful friend
Answer: LOYAL

8A clue: Had a beverage
Answer: DRANK

9A clue: Pronoun frequently paired with «her»
Answer: SHE

Mini down clues and answers

1D clue: Not spicy, as salsa
Answer: MILD

2D clue: Reasons for wrinkled noses
Answer: ODORS

3D clue: Words from a doctor checking your tonsils
Answer: SAYAH

4D clue: Comedian Gillis
Answer: SHANE

5D clue: Part of an egg used to make hollandaise sauce
Answer: YOLK

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Technologies

Today’s NYT Connections: Sports Edition Hints and Answers for Dec. 26, #459

Here are hints and the answers for the NYT Connections: Sports Edition puzzle for Dec. 26, No. 459.

Looking for the most recent regular Connections answers? Click here for today’s Connections hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Mini Crossword, Wordle and Strands puzzles.

Today’s Connections: Sports Edition is a tough one. That purple category once again has players looking for a different, but related, hidden word in four of the clues. If you’re struggling with today’s puzzle but still want to solve it, read on for hints and the answers.

Connections: Sports Edition is published by The Athletic, the subscription-based sports journalism site owned by The Times. It doesn’t appear in the NYT Games app, but it does in The Athletic’s own app. Or you can play it for free online.

Read more: NYT Connections: Sports Edition Puzzle Comes Out of Beta

Hints for today’s Connections: Sports Edition groups

Here are four hints for the groupings in today’s Connections: Sports Edition puzzle, ranked from the easiest yellow group to the tough (and sometimes bizarre) purple group.

Yellow group hint: Big Apple jock.

Green group hint: College football fun.

Blue group hint: On the road.

Purple group hint: Hunt down a word in other words.

Answers for today’s Connections: Sports Edition groups

Yellow group: A New York athlete.

Green group: Bowl games.

Blue group: Associated with a team road trip.

Purple group: Ends in a movement verb.

Read more: Wordle Cheat Sheet: Here Are the Most Popular Letters Used in English Words

What are today’s Connections: Sports Edition answers?

The yellow words in today’s Connections

The theme is a New York athlete. The four answers are Islander, Net, Ranger and Yankee.

The green words in today’s Connections

The theme is bowl games. The four answers are Alamo, Gator, Liberty and Pinstripe.

The blue words in today’s Connections

The theme is associated with a team road trip. The four answers are bus, flight, hotel and visiting locker room.

The purple words in today’s Connections

The theme is ends in a movement verb. The four answers are foxtrot (trot), newsprint (sprint), terrace (race) and thunderbolt (bolt).

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Technologies

Today’s NYT Connections Hints, Answers and Help for Dec. 26, #929

Here are some hints and the answers for the NYT Connections puzzle for Dec. 26 #929

Looking for the most recent Connections answers? Click here for today’s Connections hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Mini Crossword, Wordle, Connections: Sports Edition and Strands puzzles.

Today’s NYT Connections puzzle is full of fun pop-culture references. Read on for clues and today’s Connections answers.

The Times has a Connections Bot, like the one for Wordle. Go there after you play to receive a numeric score and to have the program analyze your answers. Players who are registered with the Times Games section can now nerd out by following their progress, including the number of puzzles completed, win rate, number of times they nabbed a perfect score and their win streak.

Read more: Hints, Tips and Strategies to Help You Win at NYT Connections Every Time

Hints for today’s Connections groups

Here are four hints for the groupings in today’s Connections puzzle, ranked from the easiest yellow group to the tough (and sometimes bizarre) purple group.

Yellow group hint: Golden state cliches.

Green group hint: Funny films.

Blue group hint: Rock on.

Purple group hint: Not white.