NEW COVID VARIANT PAIR FOUND IN SA
WHILE all eyes are on the B.1.617 Covid-19 variant dominant in India, South Africans awoke yesterday to the news that two new variants were detected in South Africa.
The National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) and Health Minister Dr Zweli Mkhize alerted South Africans to the detection of the B.1.617.2 and B.1.1.7 variants in the country.
In an interview with AFP, World Health Organisation (WHO) chief scientist Soumya Swaminathan warned that “the epidemiological features that we see in India today do indicate that it’s an extremely rapidly spreading variant”.
She said the B.1.617.2 variant was more contagious and might be dodging vaccine protections, contributing to the country’s explosive outbreak.
The NICD had sequenced Covid19 specimens from people who had recently travelled to India and confirmed that four of the specimens tested positive for B.1.617.2, two cases from Gauteng and two from Kwazulu-natal, while 11 cases of B.1.1.7 have been confirmed, with eight cases in the Western Cape, two cases in Gauteng and one case in KZN.
The B.1.617.2 variant was one of the multiple variants circulating in India and B.1.1.7 was a dominant variant in Europe and North America.
According to the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the B.1.617.2 variant was a Sars-cov-2 variant of interest while the B.1.1.7 variant was a Sars-cov-2 variant of concern.
NICD’S acting executive director Professor Adrian Puren said: “It is not surprising that new variants have been detected in South Africa. We would like to assure the public that the institute is focusing its resources and research efforts towards understanding the variants and what the potential implications are for South Africa.”
The NICD’S head of public health surveillance and response, Dr Michelle Groome, added that provincial health authorities remain on high alert and are prioritising the sequencing of Covid-19 positive samples from travellers entering the country, from India specifically, and their close contacts.
Mkhize had said the Network for Genomic Surveillance in South Africa (NGS-SA) had confirmed the two variants on Saturday.
“The B.1.1.7 has been detected in community samples and this, therefore, suggests that community transmission of B.1.1.7 has already set in,” Mkhize said.
He said there was a number of other samples from cases with a history of recent travel into South Africa that was currently being sequenced and results were expected over the next few days.
Mkhize added that the B.1.351, first detected in South Africa, was sequenced from a patient travelling from Bangladesh.
“Travel restrictions will need to be balanced against the scientific realities in order to protect the economy,” Mkhize said.
WHO regional office for Africa recently said new variants placed the continent at risk of a third wave.
Meanwhile, for four consecutive days, Wednesday to Saturday, South Africa recorded more than 2 000 new Covid-19 cases.