The World Health Organization will meet on Friday to discuss a new heavily-mutated variant of Covid-19. The variant known as B.1.1.529 has been detected in small numbers in South Africa, WHO officials said, with reports on Friday morning of cases being found in Israel and Hong Kong. Here’s what we know so far: South African scientist Tulio de Oliveira said in a media briefing held by the South Africa Department of Health on Thursday that the variant contains a “unique constellation” of more than 30 mutations to the spike protein, the component of the virus that binds to cells. This is significantly more than those of ... (full story)