New Covid variant threatens to overwhelm southern Africa s hospitals
Clinics run out of beds and oxygen as more transmissible strain spreads throughout the continent
Health care workers at a temporary ward at Steve Biko hospital in Pretoria
Credit: Phill Magakoe/Reuters
Nataley tried everything she could to save her mother-in-law when the 59-year-old began struggling to breathe just after Christmas. Nataley drove her from clinic to clinic around Durban, South Africa’s third-largest city, searching for oxygen.
But exhausted nurses and doctors kept turning them away. The new variant of Covid-19 had hit South Africa’s healthcare system like a speeding train the clinics had no oxygen left or were full of younger patients in a worse condition.
When the 501.v2 variant of the Covid-19 virus was discovered in South Africa late last year, concern grew as many questioned the efficacy of the vaccine against the new strain. Many South Africans were also worried that the mutation may be deadlier, too. Below, Tulio de Oliveira and Willem Hanekom – the scientists who discovered the new Covid-19 strain – share what they know about 501.v2. So far, the new variation has been found to be more transmissible but no more deadlier. ‘It therefore does not appear that the virus will make people more ill, or lead to more deaths’. But what about the efficacy of vaccines South Africa is yet to receive? ‘Research is under way. Until shown to be otherwise, it is reasonable to expect vaccines to be effective against this variant as has been shown in clinical trials to date’.
PREMIUM! Britain s Prime Minister Boris Johnson goes for a walk in St James park in London, Britain, 11 May 2020. Britons are now in their seventh week of lockdown due to the Coronavirus pandemic. Countries around the world are taking increased measures to stem the widespread of the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus which causes the Covid-19 disease. Picture: EPA-EFE/FACUNDO ARRIZABALAGA
As British Prime Minister Boris Johnson continues branding South Africa as the primary source of the most recent Covid-19 variant – a label infuriating local scientists – political experts who have described Johnson say this shouldn’t be cause for concern as far as politics between South Africa and Britain. Johnson and his Health Secretary Matt Hancock have been persistent with their narrative of attributing the UK Covid-19 surge to the “South African strain”, raising the ire of professor Tulio de Oliveira of the KwaZulu-Natal Rese
SA scientists who discovered new Covid-19 variant share what they know Researchers say a tip from staff at a private hospital could be the reason the 501Y.V2 was picked up so quickly 25 January 2021 - 19:48 By Willem Hanekom and Tulio de Oliveira
Late last year, the Network for Genomic Surveillance in South Africa (NGS-SA), (http://www.krisp.org.za/ngs-sa/ngs-sa network for genomic surveillance south africa/) led by the KwaZulu-Natal Research Innovation and Sequencing Platform (KRISP (https://www.krisp.org.za/)) identified a rapidly spreading new variant of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes Covid-19. The new variant, called 501Y.V2, raises critical questions, including whether current vaccines and treatments will still be effective.