European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said on Friday that all air travel to countries with the new variant should be suspended until we have a clear understanding of it, as reported by Reuters.

The EU's contracts with vaccine manufacturers say that the vaccine must be adapted immediately to new variants as they emerge, von der Leyen further noted.

Market reaction 

The shared currency continues to outperform its rivals following these comments. As of writing, the EUR/USD pair was up 0.72% on a daily basis at 1.1286.