Global concern over new COVID variant triggers South African travel restrictions

The discovery of a new coronavirus variant triggered global alarm on Friday as countries rushed to suspend travel from southern Africa and stock markets on both sides of the Atlantic suffered their biggest falls in more than a year.

 

The United States will restrict travel from South Africa - where the new mutation was discovered - and neighbouring countries effective Monday, a senior Biden administration official said.

 

South Africa’s Health Minister Joe Phaahla called the travel restrictions “unjustified”, though he also said preliminary studies suggested the new variant may be more transmissible.

 

In Geneva the WHO - whose experts on Friday discussed the risks that the variant, called B.1.1.529, presents - had earlier warned against travel curbs for now.

 

One epidemiologist in Hong Kong said it may be too late to tighten travel curbs against the latest variant.