South Africa announces a new coronavirus variant.
Prudence Dudu Khumalo had her nose swabbed before taking part in a Novavax vaccine trial in Johannesburg earlier this month. South African health officials have discovered a new variant of the coronavirus.Credit.Joao Silva/The New York Times
Published Dec. 18, 2020Updated Dec. 21, 2020
South African scientists and health officials announced on Friday the discovery of a new lineage of the coronavirus that has quickly come to dominate samples of virus tested in the country.
Scientists are examining this particular variant closely because it includes several changes in the part of the virus that allows it to attach to human cells, which is a key target for antibody therapies and vaccines.
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Severe Covid variant found in South Africa
AFP
AFP
Known as the 501.V2 Variant, it was identified by South African researchers and details have been sent to the World Health Organisation.
A severe variant of the coronavirus has been detected in South Africa which could explain the rapid spread of a second wave that affects younger people, the health minister said on Friday.
Known as the 501.V2 Variant, it was identified by South African researchers and details have been sent to the World Health Organisation, Zwelini Mkhize said in a statement.
A team led by the Kwazulu-Natal Research Innovation and Sequencing Platform (KRISP), has sequenced hundreds of virus samples since the pandemic began, and noticed that a particular variant has increasingly dominated the findings of the samples collected in the past two months , he added.
Severe Covid variant found in S Africa Afp, Johannesburg Afp, Johannesburg
A severe variant of the coronavirus has been detected in South Africa which could explain the rapid spread of a second wave that affects younger people, the health minister said.
Known as the 501.V2 Variant, it was identified by South African researchers and details have been sent to the World Health Organization, Zwelini Mkhize said in a statement on Friday.
A team led by the Kwazulu-Natal Research Innovation and Sequencing Platform (KRISP), has sequenced hundreds of virus samples since the pandemic began, and noticed that a particular variant has increasingly dominated the findings of the samples collected in the past two months, he added.
(Getty)
South African scientists have discovered a new coronavirus variant that could mean more people are infected in the country s second wave than in the initial surge.
While there is as yet no proof that the new variant is more deadly, it seems to be spreading faster – and there is concern that its mutations could have an impact on vaccine efficacy, although this is also as yet unproven.
The variant was found by genomics scientists from across the country, who have been analysing the genetic samples of the virus since the start of the pandemic, under the auspices of the KwaZulu-Natal Research Innovation and Sequencing Platform (KRISP).