BREAKING: I understand South Africa will be placed on the U.K. red list due to the rise in cases of the “super variant”
Full story here @theipaper inews.co.uk/news/politics/…
The super-variant B.1.1.529 - expected to be renamed Nu - is the worst variant U.K. health experts have ever seen inews.co.uk/news/politics/…
This variant hasn’t been tested against vaccines as takes 2-3 weeks to grow live virus in lab, but the profile makes experts think it will be the same as Beta - which reduced AZ effectiveness to 30% v infection, but Pfizer/Moderna slightly higher inews.co.uk/news/politics/…
The key concern with Nu? is that there are also signs of increased transmissibility in SA, whereas Beta was outperformed by Delta inews.co.uk/news/politics/…
It’s worth pointing out just how rapidly U.K. ministers and officials have acted against this variant. It was first identified by @PeacockFlu on Tuesday, with UKHSA officials concerned on Tuesday & Wednesday. It was first reported by @theipaper on Wednesday
New data confirmed by SA officials including @Tuliodna today, with WHO saying they were concerned. U.K. Govt red list announcement Thursday - 48 hours after first identified. Quite a contrast with Delta inews.co.uk/news/politics/…
Sajid Javid has announced SIX African countries including South Africa will go on the red list from noon tomorrow, flights will be temporarily banned and UK travellers will have to quarantine
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