Believe it or not, I am good friend with a south African family here in LT. But, in their defense, they previously lived in North America, so they are not bringing any variant (plus, they have been living here in DR for several years).
Not many of them living and visiting the island to my knowledge though.
All of the variants of concern (VOC) have been identified in Canada. I have no doubt that they are all around the world. The job of the virus is to find a human host by any means possible even if it means mutating and that is what it is doing and it are not restricted by man-made borders.
Governments are playing what is the equivalent of "whack-a-mole". They are in a mad dash to get the citizens of the world vaccinated before a mutation, that proves to be resistant to the vaccines, comes along.
Of interest are the new names for the variants using the Greek alphabet...
The B.1.1.7 VOC first identified in the U.K is now known as...ALPHA.
The B.1.351 VOC first identified in South Africa is now.............BETA.
The P.1 VOC first identified in Brazil is now....................................GAMMA
The B.1.617:2, first identified in India is now...................................DELTA
Politically correct mumbo jumbo?
Perhaps.
But at the end of the day, there is good reason to refrain, as much as possible, from labeling particular countries or peoples.
The targeting of people of Asian descent has gotten out of control, at least in North America, more specifically in the U.S.A.
All viruses, including SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, change over time. Most changes have little to no impact on the virus’ properties. However, some changes may affect the virus’s properties, such as how easily it spreads, the associated disease severity, or the performance of...
www.who.int
Proof of vaccination may well prove to be the only way out of this God-awful mess.