UK Halts Flights To Six African States Over Covid Variant

Britain is halting all flights from South Africa and five other countries in the region in response to the discovery of a highly transmissible new coronavirus variant. <br />Direct flights from South Africa, Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Lesotho and Eswatini will be suspended until further notice. <br />The British health secretary, Sajid Javid, says it was possible that current vaccines might be less effective against the heavily mutated variant. <br />South African experts say it had spread rapidly among students in Pretoria. It&#039;s not clear whether the variant is more deadly than previous mutations.