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A variant of the coronavirus identified in South Africa is more problematic than the strain found in the U.K., Britain’s health minister has said, as both strains continue to spread rapidly. Speaking to the BBC Monday, Health Secretary Matt Hancock said the variant found in South African was especially concerning. “I’m incredibly worried about the South African variant, and that’s why we took the action that we did to restrict all flights from South Africa,” he told the BBC’s Today program. (Ellyatt, 1/4)

The South Africa variant was detected in the U.K. for the first time last week, linked to a contact of someone who had been in South Africa. South African scientists say 501Y.V2 emerged after the first epidemic wave in a severely affected metropolitan area, Nelson Mandela Bay, located on the coast of South Africa's Eastern Cape province. "This lineage spread rapidly, becoming within weeks the dominant lineage in the Eastern Cape and Western Cape provinces," researchers wrote in a scientific paper published last month. "Whilst the full significance of the mutations is yet to be determined, the genomic data, showing the rapid displacement of other lineages, suggest that this lineage may be associated with increased transmissibility." (1/4)

Scientists around the world are scrambling to learn more about previously unknown variants of the coronavirus that seem to spread from person to person more readily than other versions of the Covid-19-causing pathogen. One new variant, known as B.1.1.7, was identified in December in the U.K., leading to travel restrictions and a widespread lockdown there. Since then, the U.K. variant has been detected in China and other countries, as well as in Colorado, California and Florida. In South Africa, meanwhile, doctors and researchers battling a second surge of Covid-19 cases are studying another new variant and what role it plays in the rising tide of cases there. The variant, known as B.1.351, has been identified in samples dating back to October. It hasn’t been detected in the U.S. (Hernandez and Toy, 1/1)

More than 30 countries have reported cases of the highly transmissible “U.K. variant” of the novel coronavirus, raising fears of increased global spread of the virus, even as countries begin to unroll vaccination programs in the new year. Vietnam on Saturday was the latest nation to report a case, which authorities detected in a woman quarantined after recent travel from Britain. Vietnam has banned nearly all international travel, but it is providing repatriation flights for citizens stranded in Britain. (Berger, 1/2)

More cases of a new more transmissible variant of COVID-19 are being reported in the U.S. cases have shown up in Colorado, California and now Florida. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said while it is monitoring this new variant closely, health officials weren't surprised when it first showed up. (Dillon, 1/2)

The highly contagious new strain of COVID-19 that’s spreading throughout the United Kingdom may now be coursing through the U.S. The challenge is finding it. Unlike the UK, America has not yet fully harnessed the power of genomics to quickly detect important changes in the virus that could alter the trajectory of the pandemic ravaging the country. “We’re working blind,” with insufficient screening to know how prevalent the strain is, said Dr. Charles Chiu of UC San Francisco, whose lab is collaborating with the state’s Department of Public Health to seek the new variant, called B.1.1.7., in viral samples among recent UK travelers in many California counties. (Krieger, 1/3)