National responses to the World Health Organisation's designation of Omicron as a coronavirus "variant of concern" have triggered new travel chaos globally.
The U-N Secretary-General Antonio Guterres says Africans shouldn't be penalised with travel bans after sharing important new information about the potentially more contagious variant.
Many countries, including Australia, have temporarily banned flights to and from southern Africa.
Amid crowded scenes at Johannesburg airport, Edward Barin, a holidaymaker from the United Kingdom, describes the predicament he and thousands of others are in.
"I flew in on Tuesday to Joburg from the UK. Obviously, the bans came in Thursday, Friday and so I got stuck. I think there are several thousand Europeans trying to get home via the only routes available, which I think now are Kenya and Ethiopia. And of course, if you want to avoid hotel quarantine, you need to stop there for 10 days or 14 days, if you're going back to Dubai. So it's a mess for everyone."
Meanwhile, President Joe Biden has sought to reassure Americans that the United States is prepared to handle the new COVID-19 variant, pledging to accelerate development of vaccines if necessary.
Omicron was first reported on the 24th of November from South Africa, where infections have risen steeply.
It has since spread to more than a dozen countries.
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