Covid variant
Virologist: No need to panic as SA records case of COVID variant detected in UK
Tulio de Oliveira said while the B.1.1.7 COVID-19 variant was a major concern in that country, it did not appear to be spreading fast in South Africa.
The 56-year-old woman, who recently returned from Europe, tested positive on Saturday, 10 days after she completed her compulsory two weeks in isolation.
The United States remains the worst-hit country, with around a fifth of the two million global COVID-19 deaths, and new President Joe Biden has made the fight against the pandemic his administration's top priority.
Dr Matshidiso Moeti, director of the WHO Regional Office for Africa, has indicated that South Africa may have to be one of the first African countries to see a vaccine rollout as soon as they are available as it could be one of the hardest hit by the second wave of COVID-19. Dr Moeti was speaking during a virtual bi-monthly media briefing, the first for the organisation for 2021.
The newly identified variants, which appear to be significantly more infectious than the strain that emerged in China in 2019, come as spiking virus numbers force many nations to enforce new lockdowns.