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The South African Rand (ZAR) showed a sharp fall against the dollar on Friday after a new variant of the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus was detected domestically.
Saar fell below 16.00 against the dollar for the first time this year the day after Thanksgiving and fell to 16.2391 against the dollar during Friday’s Asian trading hours.South African Rand was last traded 16.1748.
A series of countries, including the United Kingdom, temporarily Restrict travel To South Africa and its neighbors, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Lesotho and Eswatini.
Autumn comes shortly after state health minister Joe Fara announced Thursday that a new variant of the COVID-19 virus was detected in the country.
Scientists are concerned about the new variant at an online press conference, as Fara has a high number of mutations and is rapidly spreading among young people in Gauteng, the country’s most populous state. Said.
“In the last 4-5 days, we have seen an exponential increase. [in new infections]”The Minister of Health said the number of cases of the CCP virus in South Africa.
Little is known about the new mutants found in Botswana and Hong Kong, but South African scientists have an unusual combination of mutations that could help avoid an immune response or increase infectivity. It states that there is.
To date, 10 new mutants have been identified by genomic sequencing, with 3 being the first to be detected in Botswana. 6 cases in South Africa. One in Hong Kong, a traveler from South Africa.
On Thursday, World Health Organization (WHO) officials said they were monitoring a new variant called B.1.1.529 and were “concerned” about its numerous mutations.
“We don’t know much about this yet. What we know is that there are many mutations in this variant. The concern is that when there are too many mutations, the virus It can affect behavior, “said Maria Van Kerkhove, WHO’s COVID-19 technical lead. ,so Press conference On thursday.
“For example, it takes weeks to understand how this variant affects potential vaccines,” Wankelhove said. “This is noteworthy. I think we have concerns, but you want us to have concerns … we have people working on this.”
Health agencies are planning a special meeting on Friday to access new variants.
Meanwhile, South African scientists are working to identify what percentage of new COVID-19 cases in the country were caused by the new variant.
Mimi Nguyen Ly and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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Katabella Roberts is a reporter currently based in Turkey. She focuses primarily on the United States and covers the news and business of The Epoch Times.
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