The New York Times reports that anxiety over the Omicron variant of COVID has caused numerous countries to seal their borders against travelers. Israel, Japan, and Morocco have forbidden all international entry, and Australia has delayed its plans to relax its borders. South Korea has announced that no loosening of restrictions will happen in the immediate future, while Sinpagore and Malaysia have defied the trend by declaring that new green lanes with highly vaccinated countries will open as planned. Meanwhile the US, Canada, UK, and EU have only announced restrictions from selected nations in Africa where the Omicron variant was first destected, despite cases of Omicron already recorded in many other places including Hong Kong and Israel.