South African scientists monitor new coronavirus variants | Coronavirus pandemic news

Scientists have not yet determined whether the new variant is more contagious or whether it can overcome the immunity provided by the jab.

The National Institute of Infectious Diseases (NICD) said that South African scientists have detected a variant of the new coronavirus with multiple mutations, but have not yet determined whether it is more contagious or can overcome the immunity provided by vaccines or previous infections.

Last week, the KwaZulu-Natal Research and Innovation and Sequencing Platform flagged the variant in a preprint study that has not yet been peer-reviewed, called C.1.2. NICD scientists said on Monday that C.1.2 only “exists at a very low level” and it is too early to predict how it will evolve.

Although most of the current coronavirus cases in South Africa are caused by the Delta variant-first discovered in India-C.1.2 has attracted the attention of scientists because its mutation rate is almost observed in other global variants Twice as much.

However, its frequency is still relatively low. Since its first discovery in May, less than 3% of the sequenced genomes have been detected so far-although this number has increased from 0.2% to 2% last month .

NICD researcher Penny Moore said at the virtual press conference: “At this stage, we have no experimental data to confirm how it responds to antibody sensitivity.”

“[But] We are very confident that the vaccine being launched in South Africa will continue to protect us from serious illness and death,” she added.

So far, C.1.2 has been detected in all nine provinces of South Africa and other parts of the world, including China, Mauritius, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom.

However, its frequency is not high enough to be “interesting variants” or “variants of interest”, such as the highly popular Delta and Beta variants that appeared in South Africa at the end of last year.

South Africa is the worst-hit country on the African continent, with more than 2.7 million COVID-19 cases reported so far, with at least 81,830 deaths.

The Beta variant triggered a second wave of infections in December and January, and the country is now struggling to cope with a continuous third wave dominated by deltas, which is expected to overlap with the imminent fourth wave.