Shivani Gadhavi –
Published on: November 27, 2021 at 20:02 IST
A call for every Nation attending the World Trade Organization meeting next week was held by the President of United States, Joe Biden; on 26 November 2021, to waive off the intellectual property protections on COVID-19 vaccines as a new variant of Virus has already been found in South Africa.
The US President stated, “The news about this new variant should make clearer than ever why this pandemic will not end until we have global vaccinations. This news today reiterates the importance of moving on this quickly.”
On 26 November 2021, the World Health Organization (WHO) termed the new Corona virus variant as ‘Omicron’ after a Greek alphabet which means a variant of concern. The World Health Organization blames the new variant Omicron for the rise in number of cases in South Africa.
The rise in the number of cases in South Africa due to the formation of Omicron has caused other countries to have concerns over people travelling from South Africa, which has made these countries, including the United States, to place travel restrictions on people travelling from South Africa. This move is said to be “unjustified” by the South African Health Minister.
The emergence of the new variant comes a week before the 164 member countries are said to attend the World Trade Organization meeting in Geneva on 30November 2021. Due to the threat of the new variant Omicron and travel restrictions, the aforementioned meeting has been postponed for later.