South Africa is facing increasing isolation as more countries ban travel over the discovery of a new variant of the coronavirus.
Israel, Turkey, Germany, Saudi Arabia and Switzerland are among countries that have halted air travel to and from South Africa following the announcement that a new variant of the COVID-19 virus is driving South Africa’s resurgence of the disease, with higher numbers of confirmed cases, hospitalisations and deaths.
According to health officials and scientists leading the country’s virus strategy, the new variant, known as 501.V2, is dominant among recent confirmed infections in South Africa’s current wave.
The new strain, different from the one in the United Kingdom, appears to be more infectious than the original virus.
South African scientists are studying if the vaccines against COVID-19 will also offer protection against the new strain.
Professor Salim Abdool Karim, chairman of the government’s COVID-19 Ministerial Advisory Committee, said in a briefing to journalists on Monday that preliminary data suggested the new strain was dominating South Africa’s latest wave, which is spreading faster than the first.
