Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said Israel is “on the threshold of an emergency situation" after authorities detected the country's first case of a new coronavirus variant in a traveller who returned from Malawi, reports AP.

The health ministry said the traveller and two other suspected cases, all of whom had been vaccinated, were placed in isolation.

A new coronavirus variant has been detected in South Africa that scientists say is a concern because of its high number of mutations and rapid spread among young people in Gauteng, the country's most populous province.