The World Health Organization classified a new variant first identified in southern Africa as a "variant of concern" on Friday.
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What we know about the omicron variant
The identification of a new Covid "variant of concern," dubbed omicron, sparked countries to quickly roll out new travel restrictions Friday as scientists worked to understand the implications of the discovery.
Manufacturers are already testing how their vaccines work against omicron.
Just over 10 percent of people in Africa have received at least one dose.
The new strain, classified by the WHO as a "variant of concern," is blamed for a surge of cases in South Africa and has sparked fears over its high number of mutations.
Epidemiologist Dr. Deepti Gurdasani, said she would rather see countries “overreact and then scale back than under-react” to the new variant.
Lester Holt interviews Dr. Anthony Fauci about the new coronavirus variant which led President Biden to impose travel restrictions for South Africa, and seven other countries.
The downward moves came after officials on Thursday warned of a new Covid-19 variant that’s been detected in South Africa.
