New Zealand PM Ardern says prepared for new COVID-19 variants

New Zealand is well prepared for the discovery of new coronavirus variants that may be resistant to vaccines, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said on Friday, including the strain currently spreading in South Africa. 'All of our planning around COVID, we have built into it the possibility of variants in the future,' Ardern said in an interview for the upcoming Reuters Next conference. 'That is why we are maintaining levels of public health protections. It's why we've maintained requirements at our border.' Britain on Thursday drew attention to a newly identified coronavirus variant in South Africa with a spike protein that was dramatically different to the one in the original coronavirus that COVID-19 vaccines are based on.