The World Health Organization (WHO) has given an identification name as Omicron to the newly found corona virus variant to be “of concern” .
Scientists of WHO say that it had a large number of mutations, and early evidence suggested an increased reinfection risk.
It was first reported to the WHO from South Africa on 24 November, and has also been identified in Botswana, Belgium, Hong Kong and Israel.
A number of countries have now decided to ban or restrict travel to and from southern Africa.
According to the BBC a top UK health official has warned that vaccines would “almost certainly” be less effective against the new variant.
But Professor James Naismith, a structural biologist from the University of Oxford has said that since It is bad news but it’s not doomsday.”
He said mutations in the variant suggested it may spread more quickly – but transmissibility “is not just as simple as ‘this amino acid does this'” and was determined by how mutations worked together.
Only about 24% of South Africa’s population is fully vaccinated, which could spur a rapid spread of cases there, Dr Mike Tildesley, a member of the Scientific Pandemic Influenza Modelling group (Spi-M), told the BBC on Friday.
