First identified in the South Africa at the start of this week, the B.1.1.529 variant of SARS-CoV-2 has now been found in Israel whose Prime Minister has said that the country is on the ‘verge of an emergency’.

“Our main principle is to act fast, strong and now,” Israel Prime Minister Naftali Bennett was quoted.

The new COVID19 strain is said to be more infectious than the Delta variant which wreaked havoc in India during the second wave of the pandemic.

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The patients infected with the new strain so far are cases of breakthrough infections as these patients were fully vaccinated against COVID19.

Two cases have been detected in Hong Kong as well – where travellers from parts of southern Africa were isolated in separate rooms.

Samples had “very high” viral loads, noted epidemiologist Dr Eric Feigl-Ding said. “PCR Ct values of 18 and 19… insanely high considering they were negative on recent PCR tests,” he said.

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The World Health Organization (WHO) has stated that it will need a few weeks to understand the impact of the new variant, as research is underway to determine how transmissible the variant is.

The new COVID variant hasn’t been named yet and WHO will soon denote a Greek alphabet to it.

The scare of the new COVID variant has resulted in many countries like the United Kingdom and Singapore contemplating to shut their borders. Also, the Head of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, has proposed the whole of the European Union put on the “emergency brake” and ban all flights from the affected regions.