Omicron has unleashed global panic, as countries rush to shut their borders, reimpose travel restrictions and ramp up vaccination programmes.
Elephants on an African safari game drive. Picture: Unsplash
HOEDSPRUIT – Sabine Stam didn’t expect to have her feet up, sipping white wine on the deck of a half-empty safari lodge near South Africa’s Kruger National Park.
Her tour company was full of bookings for the December peak season. Then Omicron came.
First reported by South African scientists to the World Health Organisation (WHO) on 24 November, Omicron has since unleashed global panic, as countries rush to shut their borders, reimpose travel restrictions and ramp up vaccination programmes.
Stam, 36, scrambled to rush a dozen European tour parties already in South…