This does seem to be getting an extraordinary amount of attention before we know if Omicron is more virulent or not than other variants.
Many of the cases in South Africa are clustered among young people whose symptoms have been relatively mild which may be more a factor of being young or that this variant is actually less virulent.
It's surely already here as it's been found in Ontario Canada already. The travel ban is just busy work by Biden/Fauci. The message from the Administration is not to panic, yet the heavy emphasis on this when so little is known would seem to have the opposite effect.