The US is considering lifting its South Africa travel ban as White House chief medical advisor Dr.
Anthony Fauci says early indications from South Africa suggest that the Omicron variant may not be as severe as previously feared. 
'Thus far - though it's too early to really make any definitive statements about it - it does not look like there's a great degree of severity to it, but we've really got to be careful before we make any determinations that it is less severe or really doesn't cause any severe illness comparable to delta,' he said. 
'But thus far, the signals are a bit encouraging regarding the severity.

But again we've got to hold judgement  until we get more experienced.'
President Joe Biden locked eight South African countries out of the US last Monday in fear of the new super mutant COVID variant, and the ban remains in place despite travel remaining open to other foreign countries.
Although the Omicron variant was first identified in South Africa, it was later revealed that a case of the variant was confirmed in Europe a week before cases were detected in South Africa. 
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres last Wednesday said it was 'deeply unfair' to isolate a single region, calling the ban 'travel apartheid.'
But Fauci said Sunday that the restrictions were made during a time when an explosion of Omicron cases were rocking South Africa as the severity of the variant remained unknown.
He said US officials are now reevaluating the restrictions. 
'When the ban was put on, it was put to give us time to figure out just what is going on,' Fauci told CNN's Jack Tapper during Sunday morning's episode of State of the Nation. 
'Now as you mentioned, as we are getting more and more information about cases in our own country and worldwide, we're looking at that very carefully on a daily basis.'















Anger continues to boil over in Europe at Covid clampdown:...
A hospital worker ensures people practice social distancing as they wait in line to get vaccinated against COVID-19 at the Lenasia South Hospital, near Johannesburg, South Africa, Wednesday, Dec.

1, 2021






As of Saturday, 37 Omicron cases have been identified in the U.S., including eight in New York

Meantime, a Minnesota man who tested positive for the Omicron variant of COVID-19 after traveling to a New York City anime convention in November revealed that more than a dozen of his friends who also attended the packed gathering have contracted the virus.
The man, who has not been identified, reportedly alerted health officials in his home state of the potential spread - which he says affected approximately 15 members of the 35-strong friend group.
It is unclear whether any of his friends contracted the Omicron variant - which is thought to be more transmissible than previous versions of the respiratory virus.
The WHO said there have been no deaths linked to the super mutant variant despite the strain being spotted in 38 countries.

















The man now says that more than a dozen friends who attended the convention with him have since tested positive for Covid.

It is not known whether the cases are related to the new variant

In the US, the variant has spread to 16 states, including new cases in Connecticut and Massachusetts.
According to officials from the Minnesota Department of Health, the group gathered at the crowded convention at Manhattan's Jacob K.
Javits Center in Midtown - which drew more than 53,000 people - sometime between November 19 and 21.
In the days following the event, the department says, roughly half of the group tested positive for the virus. Entry to the event required that participants be vaccinated, however, it is unclear if any in the group who got infected were under the age of 12.






The man - who was one of the first to test positive for the Omicron strain in the US since it surfaced in southern Africa late last month - was fully vaccinated and had a booster shot.
The first case of the Omicron COVID-19 variant has been detected in the U.S., Fauci said December 1.
The case was identified by the San Francisco Departments of Public Health in California and confirmed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Fauci said the individual had returned from South Africa on November 22 and tested positive a week later on November 29.