Omicron: Mideast countries prepare for the new coronavirus variant

This week most Middle Eastern countries reacted in one way or the other to the new omicron coronavirus variant.

So far only Israel, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates have recorded omicron infections. But amid omicron-related concerns, Lebanese health authorities have just announced a night curfew for people who have not been vaccinated or are without a recent negative PCR test, starting on December 17.

For three weeks, people in these categories will not be allowed to leave their homes between 7 p.m and 6 a.m. It is yet to be announced what kind of penalties are planned if the rules are violated.

Health Minister Firass Abiad said during a press conference on Wednesday that “the new measures aim to limit socializing as Lebanese expatriates flood home for the holiday season.”

While Lebanon has yet to register an omicron case, after Christmas last year, COVID-19 infections skyrocketed in the country, bringing the health system to the brink of collapse.

Travel restrictions

Following the discovery in South Africa of the new omicron variant, Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Oman and Saudi Arabia have suspended air travel with up to two dozen African countries, among them South Africa, Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Lesotho and Eswatini.

Morocco and Israel have even suspended all incoming international commercial flights for the next two weeks.

However, while imposing travel restrictions to protect the population has become a regular reaction for many countries, the World Health Organization (WHO) warned this week that “blanket travel bans will not prevent the international spread, and they place a heavy burden on lives and livelihoods.”

International vaccine diplomacy

This comes as international actors have been increasingly focusing on vaccine diplomacy this year in the Middle East as well, with poorer countries still heavily affected by the fact that, so far, only 13% of doses contracted by COVAX — the program meant to deliver vaccines to the world’s most vulnerable people — have been delivered.

Vaccine diplomacy refers to the use of vaccine supplies as a tool to project soft power.

“China and Russia have stepped up their efforts in vaccine diplomacy” in the region, Professor Eckart Woertz, director of Middle East Studies at the Hamburg-based German Institute for Global and Area Studies (GIGA), told DW on the phone.

As early as last March, Wang Yi, China’s minister of foreign affairs, celebrated a new joint venture for vaccine production in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) between the China National Pharmaceutical Group Corporation (CNPGC), which is generally referred to as Sinopharm, and the Emirati company Group 42 (often abbreviated as G42).

The two companies envision producing up to 200 million doses of Sinopharm vaccine per year in the UAE.

“Morocco and the UAE are both trying to establish their countries as regional Sinopharm hubs,” Woertz told DW.

Early on this year, Morocco signed a contract with Sinopharm and thus “hopes to turn into a vaccine distribution hub for West Africa,” Woertz and co-author Roie Yellinek wrote in a paper in March 2021.

Russia, on the other hand, has already cut a deal with Egypt.

The underlying idea is that new production facilities for Russia’s Sputnik vaccine are to turn Egypt into the main distributor for North Africa.

Regional vaccine diplomacy

A second, equally important aspect of vaccine diplomacy is domestic politics.

“Successful vaccination rollouts can strengthen the position of beleaguered incumbents, such as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Israel, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Turkey, and King Mohammed VI of Morocco,” Woertz wrote in March, before Netanyahu was succeeded by Naftali Bennett as prime minister.

However, given that the new coronavirus variant is unlikely to be the last, it is most probable that vaccine diplomacy will accelerate further in the near future.

“While the new omicron variant is by far too new to analyze its political scope, it is safe to say that vaccine diplomacy has entered the political dictionary and is there to stay,” Woertz told DW.

Edited by: Timothy Jones