<span style="color: #222222;">South Africa's Health Minister Zwelini Mkhize has rejected his British counterpart Matt Hancock's claim that a new Coronavirus variant in the country is more contagious or dangerous than a similar one spreading in the UK. </span><br />'' <br />'' <span style="color: #222222;">In a statement he said, there is no evidence that the 501.V2 (variant) is more transmissible than the United Kingdom variant. He said there is also no evidence that it causes more severe disease or increased mortality than the UK variant or any variant that has been sequenced around the world.</span><br />'' <br />'' <span style="color: #222222;">Announcing travel restrictions from South Africa on Wednesday, Britain's Health Secretary Matt Hancock had said that the variant there was highly concerning, because it is more transmissible and it appears to have mutated further than the similar strain in Britain.</span><br />''