CAPE TOWN, May 8 (Reuters) – South Africa’s health ministry said on Saturday it had detected the first four cases of a new coronavirus variant that emerged in India and was responsible for a surge of infections and deaths in the Asian country.

Testing had also picked up 11 cases of the variant B.1.1.7 first detected in the UK, the health ministry said in a statement. (Reporting by Wendell Roelf; Editing by Andrew Heavens)

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