Friday will see the World Health Organization meet to discuss a proposed new global health system. heavily-mutated variant of Covid-19.

Officials from WHO said that the variant B.1.1.529 was found in very small quantities in South Africa. Tulio De Oliveira, a South African scientist, stated in a press conference held Thursday by the South Africa Department of Health that there are more than 30 mutations of spike protein. This is the part of the virus which binds with cells.

It is significantly greater than that of the beta variant, which was widely spread earlier this year and quickly became the dominant strain in all countries. Health officials say that many of these mutations can lead to an increase in antibody resistance which could reduce vaccine effectiveness and impact the way the virus behaves regarding vaccines, treatment and transmissibility.

Dr. Maria Van Kerkhove, WHO’s technical lead on Covid-19, said in a livestreamed Q&A that scientists “don’t know very much about this yet” and that it would take a few weeks to gain a full picture of how the variant reacts to existing vaccines.

The U.K. immediately moved to ban flightsFrom South Africa, Botswana and Namibia to Eswatini, Zimbabwe, Lesotho and Botswana from Friday noon until Sunday 4 a.m.

Health Security Agency in the UK is looking into this variant. Health Secretary Sajid Jamvid described it as “potentially concerning”. The U.K. has not yet identified any cases.

On Nov. 22, the first genomes for the new variant were added to the GISAID international database. However, genomes from South Africa and Botswana have been uploaded now, although the extent of their spread is not known.

According to Joe Phaahla, South Africa Health Minister, the majority of cases have so far been found in Gauteng. This is South Africa’s most populated region, home to nearly 16 million people.

It South African rand nosedivedThursday morning: More than 16.2 against the dollarAs investors raced for cover.

This new development occurs as Covid-19 cases surge across the globe heading into winter, with many countries in Europe seeing records and taking strict containment steps.