Where did Omicron Covid variant come from and where is it

LONDON — As more cases of the new omicron Covid variant emerge around the world, experts say it’s likely that the variant, first identified in South Africa last week, had already been circulating for some time.

The World Health Organization said on Wednesday that at least 23 countries from five of the six WHO regions have now reported cases of omicron, “and we expect that number to grow.”

The U.S. then became the 24th country to confirm its first case of omicron. It was detected in a fully vaccinated person in North Carolina, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirmed on Wednesday.

Other countries that have identified the variant the U.K., France, Israel, Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, Italy, Sweden, Denmark, Australia, Canada, Hong Kong and a number of countries in southern Africa.

The U.S., U.K. and EU, among others, responded to news of the variant last week by temporarily suspending flights from southern African countries, or introducing strict quarantines on anyone arriving from the region.

The move sparked anger in South Africa and has prompted criticism from the WHO, which said on Wednesday that such reactions could deter countries which sequence and report virus variants (like the U.K. and South Africa, where major Covid variants have been found) from being transparent in future.

The omicron variant, or B.1.1.529 as it’s formally known, was first reported to the WHO from South Africa on Nov. 24. The first known sample dated back to Nov. 9.

But there are now increasing signs that the variant was in circulation in other countries before South Africa’s health authorities alerted the world to its presence. There are a growing number of cases being discovered with no travel connection to the region, suggesting community transmission is taking place.

In Scotland in the U.K., for example, 9 cases have been detected that have been traced back to a “single private event” held on Nov. 20 and none of the individuals involved are believed to have any recent travel history to southern Africa.

Then, on Tuesday, the Netherlands said it had identified the omicron variant in two test samples taken in the country between Nov. 19 and 23 — before the variant was first reported by South Africa and travel bans came into place. It was initially believed that two flights that arrived in Amsterdam from South Africa last Sunday had brought the first cases of omicron to the country (there are now 14 confirmed cases in all).

On Tuesday, Germany also reported an omicron case in a man in Liepzig who had not been abroad, nor had contact with anyone who had been.

Dr. Angelique Coetzee, chair of the South African Medical Association and the doctor who first raised the alarm over a possible variant, told the BBC Sunday that she did so after she started to see…