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The UK has raised concerns about a second variant of Covid-19 detected in the country it claims it first came into contact with from South Africa.
In an interview on Monday (January 4), UK Health and Welfare Secretary Matt Hancock said that he had been in conversation with Health Minister Dr Zweli Mkhize about the new variant over the Christmas period. .
“I am very concerned about the South African variant. That is why we took the steps we did to restrict all flights from South Africa and movement from South Africa, and to insist that anyone who has been to South Africa isolate themselves.
“This is a very important problem. In fact, I spoke to my South African counterpart over Christmas, and one of the reasons they know they have a problem is because, like us, they have excellent genomic scientific ability to study the details of the disease. virus. And it’s even more troublesome than the new UK variant. “
Hancock said the second variant will make life “much more difficult” as it makes it difficult to control the spread of the coronavirus because the variant is transmitted much faster.
The current tier system in England is no longer strong enough, says Health Secretary Matt Hancock @bbcnickrobinson . # r4Today pic.twitter.com/Hv3Bd9ukMp
– BBC Radio 4 today (@ BBCr4today) January 4, 2021
Scientists are also not entirely sure that Covid-19 vaccines will work on a new variant of the coronavirus found in South Africa. ITV political editor it said on Monday, citing an unidentified scientific adviser to the British government.
According to one of the government’s scientific advisers, the reason for Matt Hancock’s ‘incredible concern’ about the South African variant Covid-19 is that they are not as sure that the vaccines will be as effective against it as they are for the variant of the UK, ”said ITV political editor Robert Peston.
South Africa is not to blame
In late December, Hancock decided to ban travel between the UK and South Africa, citing the second variant as a key concern.
However, Mkhize said that the second variant discovered in South Africa is not guilt for the coronavirus wave currently observed in the UK.
“There is evidence that the UK variant was developed earlier than the South African variant,” Mkhize said in a statement over Christmas.
He said that on December 14, the UK informed the WHO that a variant had been identified and traced to September 20, 2020 in Kent, south-east England, about a month before the South African variant appears to have developed. .
This variant has a mutation that occurs in a common site with the South African variant (501), although they are two completely independent lineages, the minister said.
The UK variant is believed to be driving the second wave that the UK is currently experiencing.
Furthermore, the UK variant has already been identified outside the UK, as reported by Professor Neil Ferguson, a leading British scientist who told the UK science and technology committee two days ago (23 December 2020 ) that evidence from Denmark, a country with a relatively low infection rate suggests that the new variant of the virus identified in the UK is ‘almost certainly’ already found in the ‘vast majority, if not all’ European countries ”.
Dr Mkhize said he is also concerned that rhetoric is developing that the 501.V2 variant is more transmissible than the UK variant or may cause more severe morbidity and mortality.
“This came from two samples collected from South African travelers’ contacts that tested positive for a SARS-COV-2 variant genetically identical to 501.V2.
“We have consulted with our genomics team who have assured us that, at present, there is no evidence that 501.V2 is more transmissible than the UK variant, as suggested by the UK health secretary.
“There is also no evidence that 501.V2 causes more severe disease or increased mortality than the UK variant or any variant that has been sequenced around the world.”
He said banning travel between the UK and South Africa is an unfortunate decision. Such a decision would require more scientific evidence than is currently available.
“There is no evidence that the South African variant is more pathogenic than the UK variant to necessitate this step,” he said.
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