As South Africa awaits the arrival of its first shipment of Covid-19 vaccines there are growing concerns about a new coronavirus variant known as 501Y.V2 circulating in the country and what the changes in the virus could mean for how the existing vaccines work.
The new variant, which was first identified in the Eastern Cape in August, appears to spread much faster than the original form of the virus. President Cyril Ramaphosa said this week, “This explains the fact that many more people have become infected in a far shorter space of time.”
The number of daily infections during South Africa’s second Covid wave has surpassed those recorded during the first wave. The highest number of daily infections during the first wave was 13,944 on 24 July last year compared to the latest highest number recorded of 21,980 on 8 January.
Calls for transparency in how KZN manages Covid-19
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Face masks dry on a washing line in a rural area in northern KwaZulu-Natal. The province has been hard hit by a second wave of Covid-19 and doctors fear the healthcare system is at risk of being overwhelmed. (Madelene Cronjé)
The grim reality of a second wave of Covid-19 infections in KwaZulu-Natal is perhaps best summarised by one of the province’s biggest undertakers. “We are swamped. We are exhausted,” said Nomfundo Mcoyi, whose staff at Icebolethu Funerals are frantically trying to manage the ghastly surge in business.
“Normally, we handle 150 to 200 burials around the province in a week. Last week we did 572. It is emotionally devastating. It is definitely Covid. I assure you, I estimate 400 of those 572 deaths are related to Covid.”
What we know about South Africa s coronavirus variant
Posted : 2021-01-13 10:48
Updated : 2021-01-13 10:48
A patient wearing an oxygen mask is being treated in makeshift emergency units at Steve Biko Academic Hospital in Pretoria, South Africa, Monday, Jan. 11, 2021. AP
A new coronavirus variant discovered by South African scientists is fuelling a surge of infections nationwide and raising global concern.
Here is what we know about the variant, dubbed 501Y.V2:
- When was it discovered? -
South African Health Minister Zweli Mkhize announced on December 18 that the government had advised the UN s World Health Organization (WHO) of a new variant.
The unprecedented spike in covid-19 cases in South Africa is due to the virus variants. Scientists in the country say the transmissible nature of the variants is growing at an alarming rate, as never seen before.
Bioinformatician Houriiyah Tegally, a member of the KwaZulu-Natal Research Innovation and Sequencing Platform, (KRISP) team that discovered the South African coronavirus variants said ‘’it is inevitable’’. The virus is evolving and the more it spreads in an uncontrolled manner in many places across the world, the more chances we are giving the virus to evolve, the most chances we are giving the virus to infect immunocompromised patients and for such new variants to escape , Tegally said.