Panic as new infectious Covid-19 variant spreads in South Africa and UK, Countries shut borders

South Africa has detected a severe coronavirus variant and this could explain the rapid spread of a second wave that affects younger people.

The country’s Health minister Zwelini Mkhize made the revelation in a statement on Friday saying the variant which is known as the 501.V2 Variant was identified by South African researchers and details have been sent to the World Health Organization.

He added that a team led by the Kwazulu-Natal Research Innovation and Sequencing Platform (KRISP), has sequenced hundreds of virus samples since the pandemic began, and “noticed that a particular variant has increasingly dominated the findings of the samples collected in the past two months”.

South African doctors have remarked that more patients are younger, and do not always have other conditions that amplify the virus’ effect, but are nonetheless suffering from more severe forms of COVID-19.

Minister Mkize “strongly suggests that the current second wave” South Africa is experiencing is being driven by this new variant.

Meanwhile, the world is restricting travel from the UK amid mounting fears about an infectious new strain of the #coronavirus first detected in #England. British #HealthSecretary Matt Hancock told the BBC Sunday that the new variant is out of control.

European countries including Belgium, Italy and the Netherlands have banned flights and trains from the United Kingdom.

Canada has also suspended entry of all commercial and private passenger flights from the United Kingdom for 72 hours, effective midnight. Canada joins a slew of European countries in ordering travel bans from UK over risk of importing new #SARSCoV2 variant.