Everything we know about new Covid variant so far

A new, highly transmissible Covid variant has been detected in several southern African countries and has already reached Europe after the strain was sequenced in Belgium on Friday (26 November).

The WHO has deemed it a “variant of concern” and has dubbed the new strain of Covid as ‘Omicron’ following its Greek alphabet method of naming new strains of the virus.

Health Secretary Sajid Javid has already said there is “huge international concern” surrounding the new strain and has moved quickly to ban flights from South Africa, Botswana, Lesotho, Eswatini, Zimbabwe and Namibia.

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