Right to be concerned about new COVID variant - WHO

It is appropriate to be concerned about the new coronavirus variant spreading in Southern Africa, the World Health Organisation's Special Envoy on COVID-19 David Nabarro said on Friday.

"My own view is that really it is appropriate to be concerned about this," he told the BBC.

"I'll tell you why: The virus looks like it will have a greater capacity to evade the defences that we've all built up as a result of the vaccinations we've received since the beginning of this year."