Israel detects isolated cases of new virus variant, health officials say Health Ministry says 2 cases of Nigerian strain have been detected, while the ministry's DG earlier claimed the Brazil variant has also entered the country, a statement he later retracted but claimed vaccines might be less effective on new cases Adir Yanko, Alexandra Lukash | Published: 03.17.21 , 13:21 A few isolated cases of new foreign strains of coronavirus have been detected in Israel, health officials said on Wednesday. The Health Ministry said two cases of the B1.525 Nigerian variant of COVID-19 have been loca...