United States - The newly emerged variant of coronavirus, named "omicron,” Friday by the World Health Organization (WHO) is causing widespread concern.

Here in the U.S., that concern spilled over into the economy as stocks and oil prices plunged during a shortened day of trading on Wall Street due to news of the variant. 

Dr. Virginia Dee Banks, an infectious disease physician with Northeast Ohio Infectious Disease Associates, said her message to people is not to panic over this new variant but rather, remain vigilant and informed.

"I mean, don't panic," Banks said. "I don't think any of us should have this aha, shock moment."

Benjamin Neuman, Ph.D., a virologist at Texas A&M University, has been involved in talks with many infectious disease experts regarding this new variant and agrees with Banks that there's no reason to panic at this time.

Neuman said much is still unknown about this new strain of Covid.  

"Am I worried about this [variant]? I would say not yet," he said. 

First discovered in South Africa, the Omicron variant has now made its way into other countries. As of 2 p.m. Friday, Belgium, Hong Kong and Israel have detected cases of the new strain. 

According to President Biden's chief medical advisor Dr. Anthony Fauci, there's no indication that the variant has made its way to the U.S. as of yet.

Still President Biden decided to take swift action, Friday, in response to the variant that the WHO has classified as a "variant of concern."

In a press release, Biden announced the United States will restrict travel for non-U.S. citizens from South Africa and seven other countries starting Monday.

The U.S. joins several other countries including Canada, the European Union and the United Kingdom in putting similar measures in place to curb the spread of the heavily mutated omicron variant.

In addition to South Africa, other countries included in the new restrictions are Botswana, Zimbabwe, Namibia, Lesotho, Eswatini, Mozambique and Malawi.

"When you hear about one or two cases like they have in Hong Kong or one or two cases in Belgium, those numbers can explode logarithmically," Banks said. 

The global response comes after preliminary data from WHO suggested the Omicron variant is more transmissible than other Covid variants. It has some health experts worried because the variant's transmissibility has an unusual constellation of mutations and a profile that is different from other variants of concern.

"What we do know is that this variant has a large number of mutations, and the concern is that, when you have so many mutations, it can have an impact on how the virus behaves," Dr. Maria Van Kerkhove of the WHO said.

Neuman understands the unusual genetic make up could be worrisome but says there isn't enough data to come to that conclusion just yet.

"Right now, this is increased speculation that it might do these things," Neuman said.

It is not clear how severe infections would be for vaccinated patients.

Health experts have said it will likely be weeks before the world has good data to answer that question but vaccine makers Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech have already announced they're prepared to retool their respective vaccines to better fight off the Omicron variant.

"It should be a call to action, for everybody to run and get their vaccinations and their boosters," Banks said.

The companies speculate they could have doses ready to distribute in as early as 100 days, pending more data.