{"id":46683,"date":"2021-12-14T17:02:25","date_gmt":"2021-12-14T17:02:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/?p=46683"},"modified":"2021-12-14T17:04:12","modified_gmt":"2021-12-14T17:04:12","slug":"46683-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/46683-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Fears are rising as the new variant B.1.1.529, begins to spread rapidly."},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>The &#8216;nu&#8217; Covid variant is set to be named officially by the World Health Organisation in the coming days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Although there have been no reported cases in the UK so far, there has been one case in Belgium which has now sparked travel restrictions to be put in place.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Six Southern African countries have been listed on the travel ban for Europe as concerns increase. Flights to those countries are also being suspended until further notice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/uk-59424269\">The BBC<\/a> reported that one UK Health Official had stated &#8220;it is the worst variant they have seen so far&#8221; and scientists believe that the current vaccine may prove ineffective in treating it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Health secretary Sajid Javid states that there are &#8220;huge international concerns&#8221; over the matter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">We must act with caution against this new variant. Early indications suggest it may be more transmissible and vaccines less effective.<br><br>If you\u2019ve returned recently from the countries now on the red list &#8211; please book PCR tests. <br><br>Watch my statement here \u2b07\ufe0f <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/sVYuTqxad4\">pic.twitter.com\/sVYuTqxad4<\/a><\/p>&mdash; Sajid Javid (@sajidjavid) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/sajidjavid\/status\/1464253514717216802?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">November 26, 2021<\/a><\/blockquote><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Despite many EU countries wanting to enforce a ban, South African health minister&nbsp;Joe Phaahla condemns the planned precautions saying &#8220;it is completely against the norms and standards&#8221; and &#8220;unjustified&#8221;.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Written by Jade Mudau<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Subbed by: Rinah Mungombe<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The &#8216;nu&#8217; Covid variant is set to be named officially by the World Health Organisation in the coming days. Although there have been no reported cases in the UK so far, there has been one&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":476,"featured_media":45534,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7160,93],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-46683","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-covid19","category-news"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46683","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/476"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46683"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46683\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":46686,"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46683\/revisions\/46686"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/45534"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46683"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46683"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46683"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}