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South Africa Identifies New Variant of Coronavirus - The New York Times
Nov 26, 2021 1 min, 12 secs

Scientists in South Africa on Thursday identified a concerning new coronavirus variant with mutations that one scientist said marked a “big jump in evolution,” prompting several countries to quickly limit travel from the region.

The European Commission will also propose restricting air travel to the bloc from southern Africa based on concerns over the variant, Ursula von der Leyen, the commission’s president, said in a Twitter post on Friday.

Two cases were detected in Hong Kong, both apparently linked to someone who had traveled from South Africa.

In a statement posted Friday on a government website, South Africa said it would urge Britain to reconsider the measure, saying: “The U.K.’s decision to temporarily ban South Africans from entering the U.K.

In December 2020, South Africa was the first nation to report the appearance of the Beta variant, which has now spread to nearly 70 countries.

Since then, the more virulent and aggressive Delta variant has spread all over the world and is believed to be fueling the latest surge in cases.

In comparison, the Beta variant has three, the Delta variant has two, said Mr.

The variant shares similarities with the Lambda and Beta variants, which are associated with an innate evasion of immunity, said Richard Lessells, an infectious diseases specialist at the KwaZulu-Natal Research and Innovation Sequencing Platform.

The new variant has largely been detected among young people, the cohort that also has the lowest vaccination rate in South Africa.

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