President Joe Biden is being slammed for still allowing flights from South Africa to land in the US as his top health expert said he 'wouldn't be surprised' if the new super mutant variant Omicron strain was already in US after one-in-ten passengers who landed in Holland from Johannesburg had Covid.
The Dutch health ministry said Saturday that at least 61 new cases of Covid entered the Netherlands from South Africa, leading Dr Anthony Fauci to sound the alarm about the dangers Omicron poses to Covid-weary US residents.
'It has a large number of mutations, particularly in that area of the virus that relates to its ability to bind to the cells in your nasal pharynx and in your lung,' Fauci told the Today Show Saturday morning.
'You have to be careful and assume that that's the case,' he added, noting that Omicron could possibly 'evade' vaccinations.
Fauci's concerns about 'transmissibility' come as Biden has imposed a ban on travelers from from eight African countries - Botswana, Zimbabwe, Namibia, Lesotho, Eswatini, Mozambique and Malawi - which won't go into effect until Monday.
US citizens and green card holders from other regions of South Africa will still be allowed to travel to the US.
The CDC has yet to identify any cases of the new Covid strain in the US but the UK has said there two people have been diagnosed with the Omicron variant.
Dr Anthony Fauci said he 'wouldn't be surprised' if it the new Covid variant Omicron was already in US. On the Today Show Saturday morning he said that he's concerned about the 'transmissibility' but there were still a lot of unknowns
How concerned should the U.S. be about the new COVID-19 variant, Omicron? Dr. Anthony Fauci says he "wouldn't be surprised" to find the variant already in the country. pic.twitter.com/Mp13hYxxWW
— TODAY (@TODAYshow) November 27, 2021
'In South Africa - even though the numbers are relatively small - its ability to infect people who have recovered from infection, and even people who have been vaccinated, make us say: "This is something you gotta pay really close attention to. And be prepared for something that's serious,"' Fauci said.
'It may not turn out that way but you really want to be ahead of it, and that's the reason why we're doing what we're doing.'
Biden has said the pandemic will not end until global vaccinations are in place.
On Friday, Biden announced a ban on travel from eight southern African countries in response to Omicron - hours after his chief scientific advisor suggested the move was unlikely, and despite Biden himself declaring last year that 'banning travel will not stop it'.
The president spent Thanksgiving in Nantucket for a break with his family, where he decided after a 30-minute conversation with Fauci and his team that travel will be banned from Botswana, Zimbabwe, Namibia, Lesotho, Eswatini, Mozambique and Malawi.
He told reporters that US citizens and green card holders will still be able to travel into the country from the banned regions but no one else will be allowed.
The decision came after the UK and Israel halted travel on Thursday and the EU followed suit.
The following day New York Governor Kathy Hochul declared a state of emergency as Covid transmission reached rates not seen since April 2020.
Fauci told the Today Show that there are still a lot of unknowns and a question he is
