ROME — In a wrenchingly familiar cycle of tracking first cases, pointing fingers and banning travel, nations worldwide reacted Monday to the Omicron variant of the coronavirus in the piecemeal fashion that has defined — and hobbled — the pandemic response all along.

罗马——周一，世界各国陷入了追踪首例病例、相互指责和禁止旅行等令人痛苦而熟悉的循环，这种对新冠病毒的奥密克戎变异毒株作出的一盘散沙的应对，一直以来都是新冠疫情应对的特征和阻碍。

As here-we-go-again fear and resignation gripped much of the world, the World Health Organization warned that the risk posed by the heavily mutated variant was “very high.” But operating once again in a vacuum of evidence, governments chose approaches that differed between continents, between neighboring countries, and even between cities within those countries.

Little is known about Omicron beyond its large number of mutations; it will be weeks, at least, before scientists can say with confidence whether it is more contagious — early evidence suggests it is — whether it causes more serious illness, and how it responds to vaccines.

目前对奥密克戎的了解很少，只知道它存在大量突变。至少需要几周的时间，科学家才能有把握地说它是否像早期证据所表明的那样更具传染性，以及它是否会导致更严重的疾病，乃至对疫苗的反应如何。

In China, which had been increasingly alone in sealing itself off as it sought to eradicate the virus, a newspaper controlled by the Communist Party gloated about democracies that are now following suit as Japan, Australia and other countries gave up flirting with a return to normalcy and slammed their borders shut to the world. The West, it said, had hoarded vaccines at the expense of poorer regions, and was now paying a price for its selfishness.

像中国这样在寻求根除病毒的过程中封闭自己的国家本已越来越少，如今一份由共产党控制的报纸得意洋洋地称，继日本、澳大利亚之后，其他民主国家也放弃了恢复常态的尝试，关闭了自己的边境。文章称，西方国家以牺牲较贫困地区为代价囤积疫苗，现在正为其自私行为付出代价。

In the United States, federal officials called Monday on vaccinated people to get booster shots. President Biden sought to reassure Americans, saying that the new variant is “a cause for concern, not a cause for panic” and that his administration is already working with vaccine manufacturers to modify vaccines, should that prove necessary.

在美国，联邦官员周一呼吁接种了疫苗的人打加强针。拜登总统试图让美国人放心，他说，这种新变种“值得关注，但无需恐慌”，他的政府已经在与疫苗制造商合作，在必要情况下改进疫苗。

“We’re throwing everything we have at this virus, tracking it from every angle,” the president said in an appearance at the White House.

“我们正全力以赴地对付这种病毒，从各个角度跟踪它，”总统在白宫露面时表示。

In southern Africa, where scientists first identified Omicron amid a largely unvaccinated population, leaders deplored the travel bans as ruinous and counterproductive to tracking the virus, saying they could discourage transparency about outbreaks. African officials also noted that because of the inequity in distribution of vaccines, the continent faces this latest variant with little to no protection.

在非洲南部，科学家首次在基本未接种疫苗的人群中发现了奥密克戎变种。当地领导人谴责旅行禁令，称其对追踪病毒具有破坏性的反作用，可能阻碍关于疫情的透明度。非洲官员还指出，由于疫苗分配的不公平，非洲大陆在面临这一最新变异时几乎没有任何保护。

But with vaccine deliveries to Africa becoming more reliable, some states looked to a vaccine mandate to curb the spread of the coronavirus. On Sunday, Ghana’s government announced that government employees, health care workers and staff and students at most schools must be vaccinated by Jan. 22.

Europe which has acted in unusual concert in barring travel from southern Africa, is speeding up booster shots in the hope that they will work against Omicron, and adjusting or reconsidering a hodgepodge of social-distancing measures, even in restriction-resistant countries such as Britain.

欧洲在禁止来自非洲南部的旅行方面采取了非同寻常的一致行动。欧洲正在加速疫苗加强针接种，希望能对奥密克戎起作用，此外还在调整或重新考虑一大堆保持社交距离的措施，甚至在英国等抗拒限制的国家也是如此。

“The lack of a consistent and coherent global approach has resulted in a splintered and disjointed response, breeding misunderstanding, misinformation and mistrust,” said Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the World Health Organization director.

“由于缺乏一致和连贯的全球方法，导致了应对措施的分裂和脱节，滋生了误解、错误信息和不信任，”世界卫生组织总干事谭德塞说。

The W.H.O. convened a three-day special session to discuss a treaty that would ensure prompt sharing of data and technology and equitable access to vaccines. The European Union has pushed for the agreement to be legally binding, but the United States has balked.

世卫组织召开了为期三天的特别会议，讨论一项确保迅速分享数据和技术、以及公平获得疫苗的条约。欧盟一直在推动令该协议具有法律约束力，但美国却迟疑不决。

The very proposal underlined that two years into a devastating pandemic that has killed millions, devastated national economies and robbed many of the world’s children of nearly two years of formative experiences, there is still no global plan for getting out of it.

这一提案强调指出，一场毁灭性的流行病已经肆虐两年，造成上千万人死亡，破坏了国家经济，并剥夺了世界上许多儿童近两年的成长体验，但目前仍然没有制定摆脱它的全球计划。

As the largely vaccinated West clings to initial reports that Omicron may cause milder illness and may be susceptible to vaccines, entire swaths of Africa remain essentially unvaccinated. Some nations, like South Africa, have sufficient doses but have struggled to distribute them. Others lack the freezers, logistical infrastructure and medical personnel to inoculate their populations.

大部分人口已接种疫苗的西方国家仍坚持最初的报告，认为奥密克戎可能导致轻症，并且疫苗对其有效，与此同时，整个非洲地区基本上仍未接种疫苗。包括南非在内的一些国家拥有足够的疫苗，但却难以分配。还有一些国家缺乏给民众接种疫苗所需的冷藏、物流基础设施和医务人员。

That has given the virus plenty of time and bodies in which to multiply and mutate.

这给了病毒足够的时间和空间来繁殖和变异。

The travel bans are intended to buy time as scientists determine whether the mutations in new variant will allow it to dodge existing vaccines. But they also seemed to suggest that core lessons from the early phase of the pandemic must be learned again: An infection discovered somewhere is likely everywhere — or may be soon enough — and a single case detected means many more undetected.

这些旅行禁令旨在为科学家争取时间，以确定新变异毒株的突变是否会让它避开现有疫苗。但它们似乎也表明，必须再次吸取大流行早期阶段的核心教训：在某个地方发现的感染可能无处不在——或者可能很快就会在其他地方出现——发现一个病例意味着有更多病例未被发现。

On Monday, Portugal reported 13 Omicron cases — all tied to a single soccer team — and Scotland reported six, while the numbers in South Africa continued to soar.

Experts warned that the variant will reach every part of the world, if it hasn’t already.

专家警告说，这种变异毒株就算目前尚未传播到世界上所有地方，但迟早会如此。

The leaders of the world’s top powers insisted that they understood this, but their assurances also had a strong whiff of geopolitics.

世界主要大国的领导人坚称他们理解这一点，但他们的保证也带有强烈的地缘政治色彩。

President Xi Jinping of China offered onebillion doses of Covid vaccine to Africa, on top of nearly 200 million that Beijing has already shipped to the continent, during an address to a conference in Senegal by video link.

在塞内加尔的一次会议上通过视频连线发表讲话时，中国国家主席习近平表示会向非洲提供10亿剂新冠疫苗，此前，北京已经向非洲运送了近2亿剂疫苗。

The Global Times, a Chinese tabloid controlled by the Communist Party, boasted of China’s success in thwarting virus transmission, and said the West was now paying the price for its selfish policies. “Western countries control most of the resources needed to fight the Covid-19 pandemic,” it read. “But they have failed to curb the spread of the virus and have exposed more and more developing countries to the virus.”

由共产党控制的中国小报《环球时报》吹嘘中国成功地阻止了病毒的传播，并表示西方正在为其自私的政策付出代价。“西方国家控制着抗击新冠疫情所需的大部分资源，”该报写道。“但他们未能遏制病毒的传播，并使越来越多的发展中国家暴露在病毒面前。”

Mr. Biden said the United States had sent more free vaccines abroad than all other countries in the world combined. “Now we need the rest of the world to step up as well,” he said.

拜登表示，美国向海外发放的免费疫苗比世界上所有其他国家的总和还要多。他表示：“现在，我们需要世界其他地区也加快步伐。”

European health ministers seemed to agree.

欧洲的卫生部长们似乎同意这一观点。

“The identification of the Omicron variant in the southern part of Africa confirms the urgency to do more to vaccinate the population of the most fragile countries,” Italy’s health minister, Roberto Speranza, said at a virtual meeting of health ministers representing seven of the world’s wealthiest large democracies.

“在非洲南部发现的奥密克戎变异毒株，证实了为最脆弱国家提供更多疫苗接种的紧迫性，”意大利卫生部长罗伯托·斯佩朗萨在代表世界上七个最富有的民主大国的卫生部长召开的虚拟会议上表示。

He called on those countries to help administer vaccines. “It is not enough to donate doses,” Mr. Speranza said.

他呼吁这些国家帮助接种疫苗。“光是捐献疫苗还不够，”斯佩朗萨说。

Within a few days of seeing evidence of a new variant, South African scientists, who run the continent’s most advanced genomic sequencing labs, had identified it. Last Wednesday, they made their findings public.

南非科学家在发现一种新变异证据后的几天内就识别了它。该国科学家拥有非洲大陆最先进的基因组测序实验室。上周三，他们公布了研究结果。

After other parts of the world, including the United States and the European Union, responded with travel bans on southern Africa, South African officials protested that their country was being punished for its speed and transparency.

在包括美国和欧盟在内的世界各地对非洲南部实施旅行禁令之后，南非官员抗议称，他们的国家因为速度和透明度而受到惩罚。

Responses to the coronavirus have been as varied as the nations that are threatened by it.

受到威胁的国家对新冠病毒的反应各不相同。

Israel, the first nation to block travel in response to Omicron, granted its intelligence service temporary permission to monitor the phone data of people with confirmed cases of the variant.

以色列是第一个为应对奥密克戎而限制入境的国家，该国批准其情报部门临时监视已确认感染该变异者的电话数据。

In Italy, which has kept infections low with some of the most stringent rules in Europe, the country’s conference of mayors urged the government to impose a national outdoor mask mandate from Dec. 6 until Jan. 15, as crowds gather to shop for and celebrate Christmas.

意大利一直执行着一些欧洲最严格的规定，使得感染率保持在较低水平，该国市长会议敦促政府在12月6日至1月15日期间，也就是人们因购物和庆祝圣诞节而聚集的时候，强制实施全国户外口罩命令。

Even Britain, which has taken a lax approach to mask wearing and other social-distancing measures,

即使是对戴口罩和其他保持社交距离措施采取宽松态度的英国，面对奥密克戎变异时也加强了应对。

has stepped up its response in the face of Omicron. The country introduced new mask mandates and new travel restrictions and appeared to soften its opposition to vaccine passports and requiring masks in restaurants. And Britain’s vaccine advisory board announced on Monday that it is suggesting an expansion of the country’s booster program.

该国出台了新的口罩规定和新的旅行限制，并且似乎不再那么反对疫苗护照以及在餐馆戴口罩的要求。而英国的疫苗咨询委员会在周一宣布，将建议扩大该国的疫苗加强针计划。

In Germany, already hard hit by the latest pandemic wave, fear of the Omicron variant was palpable.

德国已经受到最新一波大流行的重创，对奥密克戎变体的恐惧十分明显。

“It feels different from the first bits of information we got about the Delta variant,” said Christian Drosten, a prominent German virologist, describing himself as “pretty worried.”

德国著名病毒学家克里斯蒂安·德罗斯滕说：“这感觉与我们获得的关于德尔塔变异毒株的最初信息有所不同。”他形容自己“非常担心”。

On Monday, the German government announced that Angela Merkel, state governors and Olaf Scholz, who is to succeed Ms. Merkel as chancellor next week had moved up a planned meeting about potential lockdown measures by nine days.

周一，德国政府宣布，安格拉·默克尔、各州州长和下周将接替默克尔出任总理的奥拉夫·肖尔茨将一场计划中的会议提前9天进行，会议的内容是讨论封锁措施。

“We need to buy time,” said Karl Lauterbach, a member of the Parliament and public health expert who is considered a strong candidate to be the new German government’s health minister, said on Twitter. “Nothing is worse than a new variant into an ongoing wave.”

“我们需要争取时间，”议员兼公共卫生专家卡尔·劳特巴赫在Twitter上说。他被认为是德国新政府卫生部长的有力候选人。“没有什么比一个新的变种更糟糕的了。”

Pauline Londeix, a prominent French advocate for broader access to medicines and transparent drug policies, told France Inter radio on Monday that variants would continue to emerge unless richer countries shared more vaccines. “We need a much more systemic approach,” she said.

The European Commission on Monday urged member states not to impose additional travel restrictions on their citizens.

欧盟委员会周一敦促成员国不要对其公民施加额外的旅行限制。

In contrast to Europe’s patchwork of regulations, China has had a more consistent and plainer policy: It is essentially sealed off as it pursues a “zero Covid” strategy.

China has steadfastly kept a high wall against visitors from the rest of the world. Foreign residents and visa holders are allowed in only under limited circumstances, leading to concerns by some within the business world that Covid restrictions were leaving the country increasingly isolated.

中国坚持对世界其他地区的来访者筑起高墙。外国居民和签证持有者只在有限的情况下被允许进入，这导致商界的一些人担心新冠限制正在使该国变得越来越孤立。

Visitors must submit to two-week quarantines upon arrival and face potential limits on their movement after that. Movements are tracked via monitoring smartphone apps, which display color codes that can signal whether a person has traveled from or through an area with recent infections, triggering instructions to remain in one place.

入境者必须在抵达后接受为期两周的隔离，并在此之后可能面临行动限制。行动轨迹将通过监控智能手机应用进行跟踪，这些应用显示不同的颜色，可以表明一个人是否来自或经过最近感染的区域，以此触发将此人限制在某地的指令。

In other parts of Asia, people are less focused on eradicating the virus than just surviving it.

在亚洲其他地区，人们不太关注消灭病毒，而只关注如何生存。

“This news is terrifying,” said Gurinder Singh, 57, in New Delhi, who worried about his shop going under. “If this virus spreads in India, the government will shut the country again, and we will be forced to beg.”

“这个消息太可怕了，”57岁的新德里人古林德·辛格说，他担心自己的店铺倒闭。“如果这种病毒在印度传播，政府会再次关闭国家，到时候我们就得要饭了。”