UK Covid-19 strain found in 60 countries: WHO
The UK coronavirus strain has been detected in at least 60 countries, 10 more than a week ago, the World Health Organization said on Wednesday.
With the global death toll now well past two million, and new variants of the virus causing deep concern, countries across the world are grappling with how to slow infections until vaccines become widely available.
The South African strain, which like the UK one is believed to be more infectious, has now been reported in 23 countries and territories, the WHO announced in its weekly update.
It added that the number of new deaths climbed to a record high of 93,000 over the previous seven days, with 4.7 million new cases reported over the same period. The UK strain, first detected in mid-December, is thought by the WHO to be between 50 and 70% more infectious
than the original.
Curbs in Beijing after UK virus variant detected
Some 1.6 million residents were banned from leaving Beijing on Wednesday as two Covid-19 cases linked to a new UK virus variant were found in the Chinese capital.
With the Lunar New Year Holiday
looming, officials had been keen to avoid an outbreak in Beijing, the heart of political power.
But a handful of cases have been detected in the capital in recent days, with six more reported on Wednesday in southern Daxing district.
Officials said that the two cases in Daxing were linked to a UK variant believed to be a more transmissible form of the virus and were first detected on Sunday.
Pfizer vaccine likely to defeat UK mutant: Study
The Covid-19 vaccine developed by Pfizer and BioNTech is likely to protect against a more infectious variant of the virus, which was discovered in Britain and has spread around the world, according to results of further lab tests released on Wednesday.
The results, based on an analysis of blood of participants in trials, are based on more extensive analysis than those released by the US drugmaker last week.
Last week, Pfizer said a similar laboratory study showed the vaccine was effective against one key mutation, called N501Y, found in both of the highly transmissible new variants spreading in Britain and South Africa.
The latest study, which has not yet been peer reviewed, was conducted on 10 mutations characteristic of the variant known as B117 identified in Britain.