The discovery of a new COVID variant in South Africa has sent U.S. stock indexes plummeting at their open on Friday, triggering financial-market uncertainty as well as travel bans in a number of nations in the continent.
As of nearly 10 a.m. eastern time, the Dow Jones Industrial Average has dipped nearly 800 points. It fell 437.69 points, about 1.22 percent, at the opening bell to 35,366.69.
Amid concern that the new version of the virus could be more infectious and vaccine resistant than the Delta variant, which has defied the vaccine in terms of prevention in some cases, the World Health Organization announced it will conduct a scientific review of the strain.
Source: National Review
