Covid-19: What is known about South Africa’s new strain of coronavirus | Coronavirus

The new variant of coronavirus detected in South Africa appears to spread more rapidly than older strains, say the researchers who identified it in South Africa.

When was the new variant discovered?

In October, this variant had already been identified in analyzes carried out at a university in South Africa, and the mutation called Sars-Covid-501v2 gradually increased its presence among infected cases.

“It began to dominate the samples that we sequence very quickly,” explained Brazilian virologist Tulio de Oliveira, head of the laboratory of the Kwazulu-Natal Research Innovation and Sequence Platform (Krisp) in an interview with Le Monde newspaper. By mid-November, the new variant already represented around 90% of the genomes sequenced in this laboratory.

The mutation was first identified in the Eastern Cape province, but has since traveled along the coast to the Western Cape and up to KwaZulu Natal. The Covid pandemic is growing exponentially in all three provinces.

On December 18, the South African Ministry of Health warned of the existence of a variant of the Covid-19 virus that appears to be more contagious than the original pathogen. The information was transmitted to the WHO (World Health Organization).

On the 23rd, the United Kingdom identified the virus variant in two patients in its territory and announced the closure of the borders with the African country.

Since the discovery of the new coronavirus, a large number of strains have been found due to their significant mutational capacity. Mutations are part of the evolutionary process of viruses. However, the speed with which the “501.v2” mutation spread within the tested samples raised concerns and hypothesizes that this variant is more contagious than others.

On Wednesday, The South African Minister of Health announced more than 14,000 new cases identified in 24 hours, while those figures fluctuated between 8,000 and 10,000 new infections daily in recent days.

Does this mean a greater danger?

The new variant has affected a younger population without comorbidities in the African country. Oliveira, however, affirms that so far nothing indicates that the variant is more dangerous than the others present around the world.

In South Africa, the death rates for the first wave of Covid-19 cases and the second wave, dominated by the new variant, are comparable, said Professor Salim Abdool Karim, in an interview with Le Monde newspaper. “It is an imperfect comparison and the data is really preliminary, but so far, it does not show alarming signs.”