South African Health Minister on Thursday announced a new COVID-19 variant has been discovered in the country that appears to be spreading rapidly, reported The BBC.
“Initially it looked like some cluster outbreaks, but from yesterday, the indication came from our scientists from the Network of Genomic Surveillance that they were observing a new variant,” Health Minister Joe Phaala said.
He said it currently remains unclear where the coronavirus variant, which is currently dubbed as B.1.1.529, first emerged. The variant was identified on Tuesday and has attracted a lot of attention as it carries an extremely high number of mutations.
The South African health minister added that the variant has so far been detected in South Africa, Botswana, and in a traveler to Hong Kong from South Africa. He said that the mutation variant is of serious concern.
According to Tulio de Oliveira, the director of the Centre for Epidemic Response and Innovation in South Africa, the new variant carries an unusually large number of mutations and is clearly very different from previous variants.
The National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) said a total of 22 new coronavirus variant cases have been reported in the country so far.
The South African health body said that cases of the new variant as well as the percentage testing positive are increasing rapidly in three South African provinces.
South Africa has suffered through three significant Covid-19 waves since the pandemic’s start in 2019.
In related news, a team of the World Health Organization (WHO) is scheduled to meet on Friday to discuss and assess the new variant.
The experts will access and determine if the new variant should be designated a variant of interest or of concern.
Several countries including India, Japan, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom have already taken note of the variant and tightened measures.
