Britain and Germany were the latest to report coronavirus cases on Saturday. This was as governments all over the globe sought to strengthen their defenses with travel restrictions from southern African countries.

There have been growing fears about the new mutation being more resistant than the vaccines. This raises concerns that the current pandemic will continue for longer than expected.

Sajid Javid, the U.K. health secretary confirmed two cases of the omicron variant. He also said that they are related and linked to travelers from southern Africa. The one in Brentwood in southeast England is the case, and the other in Nottingham. Chelmsford was previously mentioned by the government, but it did not give any explanation for this change.

Javid stated that the confirmed cases were self-isolating with their families while targeted testing and contact traceability take place. He also added four more countries — Angola, Malawi, Mozambique and Zambia — onto the country’s travel red list from Sunday. Six others — Botswana, Eswatini (formerly known as Swaziland), Lesotho, Namibia, South Africa and Zimbabwe — were added Friday. Anyone allowed to travel to these countries will need to be quarantined.

“This serves as a reminder that the pandemic continues,” he stated. “We will take additional action if we feel the need.”

Boris Johnson, the Prime Minister, and his top advisors will hold a press briefing on Saturday.

Many countries have slapped restrictions on various southern African countries over the past couple of days including Australia, Brazil, Canada, the European Union, Iran, Japan, Thailand and the United States, in response to warnings over the transmissibility of the new variant — against the advice of the World Health Organization.

Even though flights are banned, concerns grow that the variant could have already been widespread seeded throughout the world. There have been cases reported by travelers from Israel, Hong Kong, and Belgium. Germany has confirmed that it had 2 cases. Dutch authorities are testing to see if the omicron variant was present in the 61 passengers who traveled from South Africa on Covid-19 flights.

After the Dutch government had banned flights from South African countries, the planes arrived from Johannesburg and Cape Town in the Netherlands. The 539 passengers who were negative for the disease could return home, or go on to another country. According to government regulations, anyone who lives in the Netherlands is allowed to return home after a period of five days.

German officials said in the meantime that they believe the variant of the micron omicron has arrived in the country.

Kai Klose was the Hesse health minister. The sequencing of the test was not yet complete.

Italian authorities from the south of Campania are also looking into whether an individual who returned recently to Italy from Southern Africa, and tested positive for the virus, was infected.

This new variant has been named omicron by the global health agency. The variant is considered a concern for its high incidence of mutations, and early evidence that it’s more susceptible to infection than other varieties. This means that people who had previously contracted Covid-19 may be at risk of contracting it again. It can take up to weeks for us to find out if the current vaccines work against it.

Because of uncertainty over the omicron variant’s status and the inability to get scientific results out for weeks, many countries have adopted a safety first approach. This is despite the fact that past pandemic outbreaks were partially fueled by poor border policy.

Nearly two decades have passed since the pandemic began, and countries around the globe are still on alert.

Health professionals are concerned about the rapid spread of this variant among South African youth, even though no indication has been made that it could cause more serious diseases.

A variety of pharmaceutical firms include AstraZeneca, Moderna, Novavax PfizerThey have made plans to adjust their vaccines for the possible emergence of Omicron. Pfizer with its partner BioNTechThey expect to be in a position to modify their vaccine within 100 days.

Andrew Pollard is the Oxford Vaccine Group director who developed AstraZeneca. He expressed cautious optimism about the possibility of existing vaccines being effective in preventing severe disease caused by the omicron variant.

According to him, most mutations are located in the same regions as other variants.

He said that the evidence shows that vaccines continue to protect against serious diseases, even if there are mutations in others. Although we are optimistic that the vaccine could still protect against new forms of serious disease, we will need to see how it works in practice.

It is extremely unlikely that there will be a repeat of the pandemic that we witnessed last year in an unvaccinated population, he said.

Experts said that the variant’s appearance illustrated the danger of a prolonged pandemic due to the hoarding of vaccines by rich countries.

Only 6% of Africans have received COVID-19 vaccines, while millions of vulnerable people and health professionals have not yet been given a dose. These circumstances can accelerate the spread of the disease, giving it greater potential to become a deadly variant.

Peter Openshaw is a Professor of Experimental Medicine at Imperial College London.