Africa Business Radio

Britain is halting all flights from South Africa and five other countries in the region in response to the discovery of a highly transmissible new coronavirus variant. Direct flights from South Africa, Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Lesotho and Eswatini will be suspended until further notice. The British health secretary, Sajid Javid, says it was possible that current vaccines might be less effective against the heavily mutated variant. South African experts say it had spread rapidly among students in Pretoria. It's not clear whether the variant is more deadly than previous mutations.