South Africa accuses UK and others of ‘knee-jerk’ reaction to new variant

Travel restrictions on southern African states imposed by countries after discovery of B.1.1.529 already harming economy

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South Africa has angrily condemned travel restrictions imposed by countries including Britain as knee-jerk and draconian" as it scrambled to assess the potential for the new Covid-19 variant to unleash a deadly fourth wave.

In a heated press conference on Friday, the health minister, Joe Phaahla, said his country had acted transparently by alerting the world to the B.1.1.529 variant, which was detected by its scientists earlier this week.