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A team of South African researchers, led by Professor Tulio de Oliveira, has detected a new variant of the SARS-COV-2 coronavirus that affects younger patients, the Health Minister announced today.
“The variant ‘501.V2’ of the SARS-COV-2 virus has been identified by South African researchers and reported to the World Health Organization (WHO),” Minister Zweli Mkhize said in a statement.
According to the South African government official, the South African scientific research team, led by Professor Tulio de Oliveira, from the Center for Innovation and Research at the University of KwaZulu-Natal (KRISP), sequenced hundreds of samples from around the world. the country since the pandemic began in March.
“The researchers noticed that a particular variant dominated the results of the last two months,” explained Mkhize, noting that they also noticed a change in the epidemiological landscape, “especially in younger patients, who develop severe forms of the disease.”
“Everything indicates that the second wave we are going through is carried by this new variant,” added the minister.
According to Zweli Mkhize, the researchers also alerted the UK to the identification of the new South African variant, allowing them to “study their own samples and find a similar variant.”
“It was the variant that was fueling its revival in London, leading to an announcement made in Parliament and the blockade instituted in London to contain the spread of that variant,” he said.
Zweli Mkhize said he did not expect a second wave of the pandemic so quickly in the country, adding that “although the new variant is cause for concern, there is no reason to panic.”
The South African Minister of Health also explained that South Africa will also check whether current vaccines will be effective in preventing the new variant.
South Africa, the country most affected by the new coronavirus pandemic on the continent, has 901,538 infections and 24,285 deaths from covid-19, South African health officials announced.
In the last 24 hours, the country reported 8,700 new cases of infection and 274 deaths from covid-19.
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