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The new variant of coronavirus detected in South Africa seems to spread faster than preceding strains, which could explain the unforeseen second wave in the country, advance the researchers who have identified it.
“We think, and all the elements go in this sense, that this variant is more transmissible “Tulio de Oliveira, director of the KRISP research institute attached to the University of Kwazulu-Natal, told AFP on Wednesday.
His team sequenced hundreds of samples from around the country since February. They observed that a “particular variant dominates the results of the last two months,” the government had explained on Monday, announcing the identification of this new variant, similar to another detected in the UK.
Between “80% and 90% of the samples taken from the second half of November ”presented this variant, details Tulio de Oliveira.
“We have never seen a single lineage dominate like this” nor “spread so fast,” he stresses. Until now, “normally”, between 20 and 30 variants circulated at the same time, according to several sequences.
“What we do know about this new variant called 501.V2 is that it probably arose in the Nelson Mandela Bay region.”, around Port Elizabeth (southeast). Later, “it spread to the Cape, the most touristic region of the country”, to the west, but also to the north in the direction of Durban, the researcher details.
On Wednesday, London announced that it had identified two cases of this “highly worrisome” variant, as it is “more contagious”, in the United Kingdom and announced the “immediate” establishment of travel restrictions with South Africa.
South Africa, the African country most affected by the coronavirus, registered in December until more than 10,000 new cases daily.
Since the beginning of the pandemic, more than 940,000 people were infected and more than 25,000 died in the country.
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