Global fears grow over Brazil COVID variant

Oxygen supplies are flown to the coronavirus-hit Amazonas state by the Brazilian army, as fears grew worldwide on Friday over a new Brazilian variant of the disease, which researchers say could be contributing to a sharp rise in cases there.

Nearly six thousand people have died in Amazonas from COVID-19, and it's now in the grip of a devastating second wave.

Scientists are trying to work out whether this variant is more contagious than earlier ones.

But there are signs it is spreading overseas.

That concern led Britain to ban travelers from Brazil and other South American countries as a result, as well as banning Portugal, which has close ties to Brazil.

After Japan said it had detected the Brazilian variant in four travellers from Amazonas.

Amazonas has extended its urgent call for oxygen to the United States, as hospitals in the capital, Manaus, neared breaking point.

Scores of patients are being airlifted from Manaus - an isolated city deep in the Amazon rainforest - to other states.

The variant found in Brazil has 12 mutations, including one also found in the highly contagious variants discovered in Britain and South Africa.

Brazil's President Jair Bolsonaro has been lambasted for downplaying the severity of Brazil's outbreak, though it's the world's second-deadliest.

As pressure mounts on the country to get vaccinations underway, he cast doubt on the shot's efficacy on Thursday.

As a leader I wouldn't force you to take it, he says, adding that it isn't, quote, "scientifically proven".

Brazil plans to start inoculations in the middle of next week.