The World Health Organization (WHO) is holding a meeting Friday to discuss the rise of COVID-19 cases in southern Africa blamed on a new variant of the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus. WHO spokesman Christian Lindmeier confirmed the closed-door meeting in Geneva, saying that participants met to designate the COVID-19 strain, known as B.1.1.529, as either a variant of concern or interest. Officials, he said, should take a “risk-based and scientific approach” amid countries’ moves to impose new travel restrictions on African countries. European Union countries and the United Kingdom this week reacted swiftly, setting up new travel curbs to South Africa and nearby countries. “At this point, implementing travel measures is being cautioned against,” Lindmeier told a U.N. briefing in Geneva, Reuters reported. “The WHO recommends that countries continue to apply a risk-based and scientific approach when implementing travel measures.” It would take weeks to determine whether the new variant, …