Coronavirus: South African variant more hazardous

South African strain called as ‘501.V2’ could not only be more infectious than the UK strain but has the potential to have more resistance to Covid vaccines being rolled-out

Hyderabad: The new variant of SARS-CoV-2 detected in South Africa could turn out to be more worrisome and a cause of concern than the strain detected in United Kingdom.

The South African strain called as ‘501.V2’ could not only be more infectious than the UK strain but has the potential to have more resistance to Covid vaccines being rolled-out in many countries and soon to be available in India.

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Sounding an alarm over the potential of new strain on Monday the British Health Secretary, Matt Hancock acknowledged that 501.V2 is a bigger risk than the highly infectious UK variant. He said they are incredibly worried about the South African variant and as a result have restricted all movements of flights from South Africa to UK.

The coronavirus variant in South Africa was identified by the local genomic scientists led by Kwazulu-Natal Research Innovation and Sequencing Platform (KRISP) and was announced on December 18. For several months, the local researchers have been conducting genome sequencing of the local samples and in the process detected 501.V2.

The new variant has troubling details including it faster spread, higher viral load, possibly more severe towards young adults and having undergone at least two to three mutations.
Public health scientist from United States and Senior Fellow at Federation of American Scientists (FAS), Dr. Eric Liang Feigl-Ding on Twitter said the mutations in coronavirus in South Africa were not seen in new variants in the UK and Australia.

‘The local health officials from South Africa had said that higher viral loads seen in the strain may lead to ‘higher efficiency in transmission’. This means it could be more contagious person to person potentially,” he said adding, “We do not yet know how it (South Africa variant) could affect vaccines. But in some ways, this is very troubling”.

Meanwhile, Professor in Vaccinology, South Africa, Shabir Madhi, who led trials for Oxford-Astra Zeneca vaccine in South Africa, told the local news agencies and BBC that there ‘is a reasonable concern that the South African variant might be more resistant”.

“The concern arises from the fact that the virus here (South Africa) has mutated far more than the variant in the UK, and one of those mutations might mean it can evade attack by antibodies that would normally fight coronavirus,” Prof Madhi said.

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