Account Info
Log Out
English
Back
Log in to access Online Inquiry
Back to the Top

New COVID-19 variant detected in South Africa prompts renewed travel restriction

$Pfizer (PFE.US)$ $Moderna (MRNA.US)$ $AstraZeneca (AZN.US)$ $Novavax (NVAX.US)$ $Johnson & Johnson (JNJ.US)$
Scientists in South Africa on Thursday identified a concerning new coronavirus variant, prompting several countries to quickly limit travel from the region.
In the past two days, scientists detected the B1.1.529 variant after observing an increase in infections in South Africa. So far, 22 positive cases have been identified in the country.
By Thursday evening, Britain had banned flights from South Africa, Botswana, Eswatini, Lesotho, Namibia and Zimbabwe, starting at noon local time on Friday. No cases of the new variant have been detected in the U.K.
Direct flights from the six countries will be banned from midday on Friday until hotel quarantine is up and running from 4am on Sunday.
The six nations will be added to the country’s red list, which would require British travelers coming from those nations to quarantine on arrival.
Officials from Israel and Singapore had announced that they, too, would add the same countries to their red lists, along with Mozambique.
There is mounting concern among scientists over the ability of the B. 1.1.529 Sars-Cov-2 variant, first identified in Botswana, to evade the body's immune response and make it more transmissible due to its "very unusual constellation" of mutations.
Scientists are still unclear on how effective existing vaccines will be against the new variant, which displays mutations that might resist neutralization.
South Africa has requested an urgent sitting of a World Health Organization working group on virus evolution on Friday to discuss the new variant.
New COVID-19 variant detected in South Africa prompts renewed travel restriction
Disclaimer: Community is offered by Moomoo Technologies Inc. and is for educational purposes only. Read more
1
1
20
+0
7
Translate
Report
69K Views
Comment
Sign in to post a comment