Europe rushes to bolster virus defences as South Africa detects new strain
A nurse in Richmond, Johannesburg, takes a mouth swab for Covid-19 testing. Scientists are now racing to understand the impact of the new, heavily mutated strain, feared to be more infectious than Delta, which brought the world back to its knees a year after the virus first surfaced in central China. FILE PHOTO | LUCA SOLA | AFP
Governments across Europe rushed on Friday to bolster their defences against a fresh coronavirus spike, as South Africa announced it had detected a new Covid-19 strain that scientists fear could torpedo efforts to beat the pandemic.
In recent weeks the continent has been in the throes of surging cases and violent riots, wrestling with booster programmes and dramatic lockdowns to stem the tide as its death toll surpassed 1.5 million and it once again became the global epicentre of an unceasing pandemic.
