List of Countries with confirmed cases of 'Horrific' new Covid variant B.1.1.529

Officials have sounded the alarm over a new highly contagious variant in South Africa The WHO will hold emergency talks Friday regarding the new variant Countries around the world race to shut down air traffic from South Africa.

What do we know about the variant?

B.1.1.529 has multiple mutations and it could help it evade the body's immune response and make it more transmissible, South African scientists said on Thursday.

While the delta variant has two mutations and the beta variant has three - the B.1.1.529 variant has at least 32 spike protein mutations.

Younger people appear to be contracting and spreading the newly identified variant, but the next weeks will be key in determining how severe the variant is, scientists said.

List of Countries with Confirmed Cases

South Africa

The National Institute for Communicable Diseases in South Africa said 22 cases of the new B.1.1.529 variant, as it is known, had been detected in the country but that it expected more cases as genomic analysis is ongoing.

Botswana and Hong Kong

The UK Health Security Agency reports the new variant has also been detected in Botswana and Hong Kong. Germany's health ministry moved to declare South Africa a virus variant area.

Israel

The Israeli Health Ministry says it has detected the country's first case of a new coronavirus variant in a traveller who returned from Malawi. The Health Ministry said in a statement Friday that the traveller and two other suspected cases have been placed in isolation.

It said all three are vaccinated but that it is currently looking into their exact vaccination status. A new coronavirus variant has been detected in South Africa that scientists say is a concern because of its high number of mutations and rapid spread among young people in Gauteng, the country's most populous province.