The World Health Organisation has said that there are no signs that the corona virus variant identified in South Africa is in any way more transmissible than the one identified in Britain.
South Africa’s Health Ministry recently announced that it had detected a new variant of Covid-19 which was said to be more transimissible and affects people who do not have comorbidities.
South Africa has been seeing new daily cases come in tens of thousands, and on Monday surpassed 30000 deaths.
Britain also has a variant that is spreading so fast according to Maria Van Kerkhove the World Health Organisation’s Technical Chief on COvid-19.
According to details from the South African Government, the variant, known as 501.V2, appears to be more infectious than the original virus.
South African scientists are trying to determine if approved COVID-19 vaccines will protect against the new strain, which is different from the one detected in Britain.
Meanwhile, before christmas the British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said the fast-moving new variant of the virus is 70% more transmissible than existing strains, and appears to be driving a rapid spike in new infections in London and southern England.
However, “there’s no evidence to suggest it is more lethal or causes more severe illness,” or that vaccines would be less effective against it, he said. Britain has alerted the World Health Organization that the new strain — is the likely cause of the surge in infections, accounting for around 60% of London’s cases.
The virus that was first detected in Wuhan, China, is not the same one you will find in most corners of the world. The D614G mutation emerged in Europe in February and became the globally dominant form of the virus.
According to experts in Britain, the most likely explanation is the variant has emerged in a patient with a weakened immune system that was unable to beat the virus. Instead their body became a breeding ground for the virus to mutate.
