New virus strain alarms UK, South Africa
2020-12-19 HKT 05:30 Share this story
Britain has stepped up coronavirus measures in London amid concern over a new strain of coronavirus. Photo: Reuters British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has called senior ministers to an unscheduled meeting on Friday evening to discuss how to contain a new, more virulent variant of the coronavirus, The Telegraph newspaper reported.
An emergency toughening of Covid-19 restrictions could be announced as soon as Saturday, possibly including restrictions on travel between the southeast of England, including London, and the rest of the country, the newspaper said.
A spokesman for the prime minister said he was unable to comment on the report immediately.
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SA scientists identify COVID-19 variant, Mkhize announces Health Minister Zweli Mkhize is briefing the media on the latest developments regarding the coronavirus pandemic. Health Minister Dr Zweli Mkhize. Picture: EWN
105 days ago
JOHANNESBURG - Health Minister Zweli Mkhize has announced that South African scientists have identified a variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus.
The variant is a version of the COVID-19 virus.
The Kwazulu-Natal Research Innovation and Sequencing Platform identified the virus variant after sequencing hundreds of samples of the virus and noticing that this particular variant had been dominating the findings from the samples collected in the past two months.