Travel Warnings

Omicron Deepens Uncertainty Surrounding Beijing Olympics

The Winter Olympics are three weeks away, but tickets have yet to go on sale. Airlines are shifting schedules, creating travel confusion. Now, a spate of coronavirus outbreaks around China — including some locally transmitted cases of the fast-spreading Omicron variant — is adding to the uncertainty ahead of the Games in Beijing. As of […]

Covid Spoils Another Christmas in the Holy Land

JERUSALEM — There were only a few shopping days left until Christmas, but in the Christian Quarter of Jerusalem’s Old City, most of the shops were shuttered. The owner of Santa Maria Souvenirs, David Joseph, a Palestinian Christian, glumly padlocked his storefront and said there was no point in waiting around. As church bells rang […]

Spike in Omicron Variant Cases Puts Europe on Edge

In parts of the United States, health officials have also seen a steady climb in the number of Omicron cases. The variant has been detected in at least 16 states: California, Colorado, Connecticut, Hawaii, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Utah, Washington and Wisconsin. Some Americans, too, are becoming more […]

Omicron Is Here. Should You Cancel Your Trip?

David Freedman, the president-elect of the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, said that the type of mask one wears while traveling is particularly important. Dr. Freedman discourages people from wearing cloth or homemade masks; N95 or KN95 masks are preferable, he said. It is difficult to assess how likely it is that a […]

Travelers to U.S.: Can They Get Their Tests Back in Time?

LONDON — Deborah Tudhope was growing anxious. An American lawyer living in London, she was hoping to fly back to the United States in two weeks to see her 96-year-old mother, who lives in a retirement home in Maine. But the Omicron-driven travel restrictions announced on Thursday by the White House have her worrying that […]

What We Know About the New Covid Variant, Omicron

Those mutations also raise the prospect that the variant will reduce the efficacy of monoclonal antibody treatments — a fear partly confirmed on Tuesday with Regeneron’s announcement. Still, it is worth remembering the fate of earlier variants that stirred concern: Beta and Mu, for example, evolved the ability to partially evade the body’s immune defenses, […]

W.H.O. Scolds Rich Nations for Travel Bans and Booster Shots

LONDON — As the still-mysterious Omicron variant reached American shores, the World Health Organization on Wednesday scolded wealthy countries that imposed travel bans and dismissed those that poured resources into vaccine booster campaigns when billions in poor countries had yet to receive their first shots. The comments by W.H.O. officials reopened fraught questions of equity […]

Omicron Variant, in 20 Nations, Spread Earlier Than Was Known

The heavily mutated new coronavirus variant was in Europe several days earlier than previously known, health officials said Tuesday, and the number of countries where it has been found increased to at least 20, raising questions about whether the pandemic is about to surge once again. The Netherlands’ National Institute for Public Health and the […]

Amid Variant Fears, U.K. Discovers Limits to Its Virus Strategy

LONDON — At almost every step of the pandemic, Britain has been a coronavirus renegade. It locked down later than its European neighbors in March 2020, rolled out vaccines faster than almost any major country earlier this year, and threw off virtually all restrictions last summer in an audacious bid to return life to normal. […]