A leading geneticist with the European Molecular Biology Laboratory says that the new coronavirus variant is 'very likely' to be 'a much more transmissible variant' due to the speed with which it displaced the Delta variant as the dominant strain of the novel coronavirus in South Africa. Research Group Leader Moritz Gerstung also says the mutations found in other variants of concern have occurred at the same time in the new variant, which according to him is highly unusual. SOUNDBITES