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PHOTO: Pixabay
There is no evidence that the new coronavirus strain found in South Africa is more dangerous or more contagious than the British variety, South African Health Minister Zveli Mkhize said in response to his British counterpart Matt Hancock, AFP reported.
There is no evidence that the South African strain is more easily transmitted than the British one, as Matt Hancock claims. There is also no evidence that it causes a more severe form of the disease or a higher mortality rate than the variant in Britain or from any of the mutations identified in the world, Mkhize said in a statement published last night, BTA reports.
On Wednesday, Matt Hancock said the new form of the virus in South Africa was of great concern as “it is more contagious and appears to have mutated more than the one identified in Britain.”
These statements “may have given the impression that the South African version is a significant factor in the second wave of the virus in Britain, which is not the case,” Mkhize said in a Christmas statement. Research shows that the British mutation developed a month earlier than South Africa’s, the minister said. He clarified that according to London, the British strain of the coronavirus was traced to Kent on September 20, a month before the appearance of the South African strain.
Minister Mkhize regretted the decision to ban travel between the Republic of South Africa and the United Kingdom.
South Africa is the most affected country on the continent. In the last two days, more than 14,000 cases were found there, compared to an average of between 8,000 and 10,000 at the beginning of the week.
Mkhidze already hinted on Wednesday that new restrictions might be necessary to curb the alarming rate of proliferation.
Nearly 970,000 South Africans have been infected with the coronavirus since the pandemic began, and nearly 26,000 have died.
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