World markets collapsed on Friday after news of a new variant of the coronavirus discovered in Africa, CNBC reported.
The pan-European Stoxx 600 index fell 2.4% in the morning in Europe, banks and tourism stocks suffered heavy losses, as did the oil and gas sectors.
During the morning trade on the Old Continent, the international benchmark of Brent crude oil fell by 5.3% up to $ 77.89 per barrel, and US crude oil – by more than 6.2% to $ 73.58 a barrel.
US stock futures lost more than 800 points at the opening of the Dow Jones Industrial Average, while markets in the Asia-Pacific region fell overnight, with Hong Kong’s Hang Seng and Japan’s Nikkei 225 losing more than 2.5%. Exactly Hong Kong is one of the places in the world where there are already confirmed cases of the new strain.
The new variant of the coronavirus – the most significant so far according to Britain
The country restricts flights from several African countries
–
World Health Organization gathered for an emergency meeting on Friday, to consider the emergence of variant B.1.1.529, which according to South African scientists contains more than 30 mutations in the spike protein – the component of the virus that binds to cells. This is significantly more than the now dominant Delta option.
The strain was initially detected in South Africa and Botswana. Therefore, many countries in Europe and Asia imposed flight restrictions from countries in southern Africa.
–
Von der Layen: The EU will use an “emergency brake” because of the new Covid variant
Germany and Italy ban flights from South Africa
–
– .
