A previous version of this story misstated the date. "And that's what we're doing right now."Ĭorrection: South Africa's Department of Health held a briefing on the B.1.1.529 Covid variant on Thursday. "You're prepared to do everything you need to do to protect the American public, but you want to make sure there's a basis for doing that," Fauci said. In Asia, Singapore has banned flights from southern Africa, while Japan has heightened its border controls for anyone entering from the region. has suspended flights from six countries in the region as well. The European Union's 27 member states jointly agreed on Friday to pause travel from southern Africa, and the U.K. would decide on enacting travel restrictions "as quickly as we possibly can" if health officials believe they're necessary after reading South Africa's data. The WHO assigned the Greek letter omicron to the strain on Friday, and its technical advisory group on virus evolution formally classified omicron as a variant of concern, a designation for mutations that are more contagious and more virulent and that can more easily dodge vaccines and therapeutics.įauci said the U.S. The organization announced a special meeting for Friday to further discuss the variant's potential implications on Covid vaccines and treatments. World Health Organization officials said Thursday that omicron contained a large number of mutations but had only been detected in small numbers across South Africa. That includes more than 30 mutations to the spike protein that allows Covid to enter cells and 10 to the receptor binding domain that first makes contact with cells. The new strain features roughly 50 mutations, according to data presented by scientist Tulio de Oliveira at a briefing hosted by the South Africa Department of Health on Thursday. Omicron contains even more mutations than the world's most dominant Covid strain, the highly transmissible delta variant. Fauci said there was "no indication" that omicro n had reached the U.S. The new strain has now been detected in a growing number of countries, including Belgium, Botswana and Israel. is in "very active communication" with South African scientists and is working to get the molecular makeup of the variant in order to conduct lab tests. "And we just arranged, right now, a discussion between our scientists and the South African scientists a little bit later in the morning to really get the facts, because you're hearing a lot of things back and forth."įauci emphasized that the U.S. "This is really something that's in motion," Fauci said. would restrict travel for non-citizens from Botswana, Eswatini, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa and Zimbabwe. Biden administration officials later confirmed that the U.S. Central.With countries across Europe and Asia imposing travel restrictions on several nations in southern Africa, Fauci added that analyzing the data could help determine whether similar measures might also be necessary in the U.S. Houston will look to extend its improbable streak to six when New Orleans (7-18) visits on Sunday, with tipoff set for 6:00 p.m. Nonetheless, for a group that seemed highly frustrated and dispirited less than two weeks ago, it’s a clear shot in the arm as they return to Toyota Center for practice on Saturday. Even with the current streak, Houston appears highly likely to again miss the playoffs, with a clear priority being placed on playing time and development for younger players like Kevin Porter Jr., Jalen Green, Alperen Sengun, and KJ Martin. In the grand scheme, the accomplishment isn’t likely to mean all that much. In fact, the Rockets are the first team in league history to ever win five games in a row after a losing streak of 15 or more games, which they had suffered until the Nov. Holding Sand - The Burden (Alt. is in very active communication with South African scientists and is working to get the molecular makeup of the variant in order to conduct lab tests. With five straight wins, Houston now owns the longest active winning streak in the entire NBA. After all, Houston (6-16) is currently tied for the worst record in the Western Conference, and they’re far behind those top two teams.īut the loss by the Suns did give the young and rebuilding Rockets an incredibly unlikely claim to fame. When the Phoenix Suns (19-4) lost at Golden State (19-3) on Friday night, the result didn’t initially appear to mean much for the Rockets.