<article><p class="lead">Crude prices recovered in the early hours of Asian trading today, after the emergence of a new Covid-19 variant sparked concerns about demand and one of the sharpest price falls in the history of futures trading on 26 November. </p><p>The Ice front-month Brent contract rose by around 4.5pc from its <a href="https://direct.argusmedia.com/newsandanalysis/article/2277917">settlement on 26 November</a> to about $76/bl at around 03:40 GMT. The recovery was in line with expectations among market participants in China at the end of last week, who mostly felt the crude market was overreacting to the new variant discovered in South Africa, named Omicron by the World Health Organisation (WHO), and that prices will rebound early this week.</p><p>It remains unclear if Omicron is more transmissible or whether infection with Omicron causes more severe illness compared with other variants, including Delta, the WHO said on 28 November. </p><p>But the new variant has sparked precautionary action in several Asia-Pacific countries because of concerns that it could force many economies back to lockdowns. </p><p>South Korea will remove eight African countries — Namibia, South Africa, Mozambique, Lesotho, Malawi, Botswana, Eswatini and Zimbabwe — from its quarantine exemption list during 1-31 December, the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency said on 28 November. </p><p>Australia has put in place restrictions for people who have been to various southern African nations in the last 14 days, requiring citizens, permanent residents and their immediate family members to undergo a 14-day supervised quarantine and banning all other travellers from entering the country. New Zealand will allow only its citizens coming from South Africa and eight other African nations to enter the country from 28 November.</p><p>The Philippines on 28 November announced similar restrictions but also added Austria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Belgium and Italy to its Covid-19 "red list". </p><p>China, which already has strict border controls in place as part of its Covid-zero policy, has yet to announce any additional restrictions. But Hong Kong imposed a ban over the weekend on non-resident arrivals from South Africa and seven other African nations if they had stayed in these countries in the past 21 days. </p><p>Singapore announced on 28 November that it will defer the launch of vaccinated travel lanes with Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE as a further precautionary measure, after <a href="https://direct.argusmedia.com/newsandanalysis/article/2277635">imposing restrictions</a> at the end of last week on arrivals from South Africa and six other African nations.</p><p>The new variant and restrictions could put a dampener on year-end travel demand and jet fuel consumption, which has been <a href="https://direct.argusmedia.com/newsandanalysis/article/2277633">showing signs of a slow recovery</a> with the lifting of travel curbs in the past few weeks. </p><p class="bylines">By Reena Nathan</p></article>
