Canadian dollar falls as coronavirus worries mount

The Canadian dollar fell against most major currencies on Monday, amid global concerns about a new coronavirus variant.

The British health authorities identified a new coronavirus strain that spreads more quickly, which forced London to impose tighter lockdown restrictions, and led many countries to suspend flights from the United Kingdom.

This came despite the start of more vaccination campaigns by several countries, including Britain and Canada starting to use the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine.

The German Minister of Health said that the vaccines available would still be effective against the new strain, but experts have warned of the transmission of the new strain.

The European Union has given emergency use approval to the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine in efforts to contain the pandemic.

As of 17:02 GMT, CAD/USD fell 0.4% to 0.7789, after hitting an intraday high of 0.7821 and a low of 0.7719.