discovered in South Africa. The variant appears to be much more contagious than the delta variant.
The new variant, which is called B. 1.1.529, has a very large number of mutations.
A variant of the virus is blamed for the outbreak in South Africa and has also been detected in Botswana, Hong Kong and Israel.
Karoline Bragstad, Section Manager at the National Institute of Public Health (FHI). It says they are working on a risk report for a variant that appears to be much more contagious than the delta variant.
The World Health Organization WHO will decide on Friday whether a variant should be classified as "interesting" or "worrying".
Bragstad says the WHO usually takes a long time to reclassify the virus into a variant of concern.
"They can sound the alarm anytime, it's because it has so many changes and could turn out to be spreading quickly in South Africa," he says.
Source: NTB
Photo: Heiko Junge / NTB
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