The World Health Organization (WHO) labeled the newly detected COVID-19 strain Omicron and called it a "variant of concern."
The agency added that it is concerned about the transmissibility of the Omicron strain due to its unusual mutations and warned that the rising number of cases in South Africa could mean the variant is immune to existing vaccines.
Earlier, several countries, including the United Kingdom, France and Russia, banned travel from South Africa and some other African countries over concerns about the Omicron variant.
