Over the last month new variants of Covid-19 have been spreading further around the world. Managed isolation facilities here now hold cases of the highly-transmissible UK variant of Covid-19 and a new one associated with South Africa.

Almost a quarter of the country’s live cases are now the UK variant and that number is expected to go up. The newer strains have meant Australia is tightening its MIQ rules after the UK variant was found in its community.

Epidemiologist Associate Professor Nick Wilson from the University of Otago joins Emile to explain why this news is worrying local public health experts.