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.

Looking for Black Friday deals?

Don’t miss a minute of the action with our live coverage of Black Friday 2021 deals.

«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.

window.CnetFunctions.logWithLabel(‘%c One Trust ‘, «Service loaded: script_twitterwidget with class optanon-category-5»);

«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

Sony WF-1000XM6 vs. Samsung Galaxy Buds 4 Pro Earbuds: A Photo Finish

Technologies

The Apple Watch Series 12 Could Bring Back a Throwback iPhone Feature

Everything we’ve heard so far about the rumored Apple Watch Series 12.

We’re hot off a busy March Apple launch with seven new products, including an iPhone 17E, updated MacBook Pros and a colorful MacBook Neo that’s about to rattle the Chromebook market. As we set our sights on the next big hardware launch, the Apple Watch Series 12 is already on the horizon.

While there haven’t been any concrete leaks yet, there’s plenty we can infer based on Apple’s past launches and typical release patterns. There are also a few lingering rumors that could finally land this year, including a possible nod to a long-removed but not forgotten iPhone feature.

Apple Watch Series 12 launch date

If there’s one thing Apple tends to keep consistent, it’s the timing of its fall hardware event, where it typically unveils its newest flagship iPhones and Apple Watch models.

Apple typically holds this event on the second Tuesday of September (usually the week after Labor Day). By that logic, Sept. 15 seems like the most likely candidate for Apple’s 2026 fall event. Because it lands a bit later in the month than in previous years, there’s also a slim chance Apple moves it up to Sept. 9 (Labor Day week), as it has before.

As in previous years, preorders would likely open on the Friday after the event, with availability following a week or so later (assuming no production delays).

Pricing and availability

Expect pricing for the new watches to stay roughly in line with the current Series 11 lineup, which starts at about $400 (42mm Wi-Fi model). Though price hikes aren’t completely off the table, with lingering tariff increases and the potential for supply chain issues.

How many Apple Watch models will we get?

A Series 12 is all but guaranteed — we’ve had a new Apple Watch model arrive every year since its launch. What’s less certain is whether Apple will refresh the entire lineup again this year. The Apple Watch SE and Ultra models don’t follow the same annual update cycle, and because both the SE 3 and Ultra 3 were refreshed in 2025, it’s less likely that Apple will update both again this year.

If Apple does add another model alongside the Series 12, the Ultra would be the more plausible candidate. Apple isn’t one to hold out on new features for its high-end models when warranted. Or if it follows the pattern set with the Ultra 2, the company might just roll out a new color model for the Ultra 3.

Design upgrades on the Apple Watch Series 12

There are rumblings of a redesign in the works, but given how sparse the chatter has been, my guess is we won’t see a major design overhaul this year. Expect the same silhouette, similar colors and materials. What could change: screen technology. A more energy-efficient display — potentially an improved LTPO panel with better brightness, as seen on the Series 10 — could help claw back some battery life without adding bulk.

Battery life and processor

The Series 11 and Ultra 3 got a significant battery bump over their predecessors: at least 6 hours more by Apple’s numbers and roughly an extra half day (or more) in my real-world testing. And the Ultra 3 also got charging speed worthy of its name, like its newer siblings. But there’s still a lot of room for improvement on both battery life and charging speed.

With no major clues hinting at bigger batteries yet, I’d bet we see more incremental gains (if any) on the Series 12. Improvements could come from better screen technology, software optimizations, and more efficient processors.

In theory, the processor name usually matches the watch number, suggesting an S12 chip this year. But since the Series 11 and Ultra 3 are still running on the previous year’s S10 chip, the next upgrade could technically be an S11, making this year’s naming a bit awkward.

New health features on the horizon

Apple has already dipped its toes into blood pressure monitoring with hypertension notifications on the Apple Watch (Series 10, Series 11 and Ultra 3). The feature alerts owners when it detects signs of abnormally high blood pressure, but it stops short of providing an on-the-spot read. This could be on the table for the fall of 2026.

Other wearable health companies like Omron and Med-Watch have proven that wrist-based blood pressure measurement is possible, though it’s not as reliable as a traditional cuff and may require new (bulkier) hardware to bring to the Apple Watch.

According to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, Apple has been testing the feature internally but has encountered accuracy issues. And even if Apple pulls it off for this year, it might measure only baseline trends similar to Samsung’s blood pressure feature on the Galaxy Watch 7 and Ultra (not supported in the US).

Glucose monitoring is another long-running rumor that’s on the table, but according to Gurman, it’s even further from a finished product than blood pressure and realistically wouldn’t appear before 2027.

Biometric authentication: Touch ID or Face ID?

Rumors of a camera on the Apple Watch have been around for a few years — not for selfies, but potentially for Face ID or AI-based image recognition.

Apple Intelligence on the iPhone introduced a visual search tool that uses the camera to identify objects and places in real time, and it might be a matter of time before this feature eventually makes its way to the wrist. Meanwhile, wearable-focused processors like Qualcomm’s Snapdragon chips already support cameras and even livestreaming. Apple is known to use its proprietary chips, so it’s unlikely this would impact Apple’s timeline, but it shows the technology is there, and we may see it down the line on the Apple Watch. Just not this year, according to Bloomberg.

A more feasible near-term option could be Touch ID. Macworld recently spotted lines of internal code suggesting Apple has been experimenting with biometric authentication for the 2026 Apple Watch lineup. According to the report, the code references «AppleMesa,» which is Apple’s internal code name for a watch-based Touch ID. It’s still unclear whether the sensor would be integrated under the display, like we see on Android phones, or built into the side button or the Digital Crown.

Watch OS 27 wishlist

Now that Apple has standardized its operating system names to match the year ahead, you don’t need to be a rocket scientist to figure out that the next big update for the Apple Watch will be WatchOS 27.

With a major redesign already in the books (5 New Apple Watch Features Coming With WatchOS 26), we’re not expecting a dramatic visual change this time around, but there’s plenty on the wishlist, including better battery management tools and more customizable gesture controls. Apple could also expand Workout Buddy from metric-driven encouragement into more concrete training territory. This could bring it closer to what Samsung is trying with its AI-powered Running Coach.

Lastly, I’d welcome a more robust symptom tracker tied into the Vitals app similar to Oura Ring’s Symptom Radar that can flag early signs of illness.

Other Health app updates

The next version of WatchOS 27 could also bring changes to the Health app. According to a report from Mark Gurman at Bloomberg, Apple has been working on a top-secret initiative code-named Project Mulberry, aimed at revamping the Health app with an AI-powered health concierge that could unify your health, fitness, and medical data in one place.

However, the project has recently run into some obstacles. Bloomberg’s latest report suggests Apple has put the effort on hold (at least for this year). That still leaves room for improvement on the Health app front with a potential redesign to the main dashboard that would make spotting trends easier.

Technologies

Today’s NYT Connections: Sports Edition Hints and Answers for March 10, #533

Here are hints and the answers for the NYT Connections: Sports Edition puzzle for March 10, No. 533.

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 features a lot of team names, but that doesn’t mean it’s an easy one to solve. 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: Play ball!

Green group hint: Not front.

Blue group hint: Certain NFL player.

Purple group hint: They play at Smoothie King Center.