High alert: World scurries to contain new COVID variant

By MIKE CORDER and PAN PYLAS
Associated Press

THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — With each passing hour, new restrictions were being slapped on travel from countries in southern Africa as the world scurried to contain a new variant of the coronavirus that has the potential to be more resistant to the protection offered by vaccines. A host of countries, including Australia, Brazil, Canada Iran, Japan and the United States, joined others, including the European Union and the U.K. in impose restrictions on southern African countries in response to warnings of the new variant — against the advice of the World Health Organization. Dutch officials were undertaking further tests Saturday on 61 people who tested positive for COVID-19 after arriving in the Netherlands on two flights from South Africa on Friday.