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Britain was forced to defend a crackdown on travellers entering the country.Credit:

“The blanket re-introduction of testing to enter the UK,on top of the current regime of isolation and PCR testing on arrival is completely out of step with the rest of the world,” British Airways said in a statement on Saturday.

Britain on Sunday said it had identified 86 new cases of the Omicron coronavirus variant,taking the total to 246. It reported 43,992 new cases of COVID-19 and 54 deaths within 28 days of a positive test for the virus.

A police officer sprays pepper spray during a protest against coronavirus measures in Brussels.Credit:

In Belgium,police used water cannon and tear gas on Sunday to disperse some rowdy protesters in Brussels after most demonstrators marched peacefully to protest tightened COVID-19 restrictions that aim to counter a surge of coronavirus infections.

Thousands came to reject the new measures announced on Friday,the third week in a row that the government has tightened its rules as an avalanche of new cases strains the country’s health services,depriving people with other life-threatening diseases of treatment.

Moderna’s president Stephen Hoge said there’s a “real risk” that existing vaccines will be less effective against Omicron,though it’s too early to say by how much.

An updated formulation would be probably be needed if effectiveness is shown to drop by something like half,Hoge said on the US television programThis Week on Sunday.

“I think that there’s a real risk that we’re going to see a decrease in the effectiveness of the vaccines,” Hoge said. “What I don’t know is how substantial that is.”

Bloomberg and AP

Coronavirus pandemic