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A new variant of coronavirus detected in South Africa could explain the speed of second wave transmissions in the country, which it also affects younger patients, the Minister of Health announced Friday night.
This “501.V2 variant” of the virus was identified by South African researchers and reported to the World Health Organization (WHO), announced the minister, Zwelini Mkhize, in a statement.
This team sequenced hundreds of samples from all over the country since the beginning of the pandemic in March and “observed that a particular variant dominates the results of these last two months,” he explained.
In addition, South African physicians perceived an evolution of the epidemiological landscape, with a greater number of younger patients, without comorbidities, developing severe forms of the disease.
All the elements “strongly indicate that the second wave we are going through is driven by this new variant,” added the minister.
The team of South African researchers, led by Professor Tulio de Oliveira (KRISP center, University of Kwazulu-Natal), shared their observations with the scientific community.
It also alerted the UK to the identification of the South African variant, allowing British investigators “Study your own samples and find a similar variant”, potentially implicated in the rampant transmission observed in some areas of the country, according to the minister.
It is not the first time that mutations of the SARS-CoV-2.
Zwelini Mkhize stated that a second wave so fast was not expected.
In addition to the possible acceleration of infections linked to this variant, the arrival of the southern summer and the fatigue resulting from the first wave caused a certain relaxation of precautionary measures.
South Africa, officially the most affected country on the continent, has so far registered 24,285 deaths and more than 900,000 cases, more than 8,700 of them detected in the last 24 hours.
At the worst moment of the first wave, in July, the daily number of cases stood at 12,000.
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