A new COVID-19 variant feared to be worse than the highly transmissible Delta variant has been detected in South Africa.
A new case of the relatively new variant has been detected by New Zealand health authorities.
South Africa’s National Institute for Communicable Diseases warns the new variant has “mutated substantially”. The variant is now more different than the original variant detected in Wuhan, China.
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The new variant, known as C. 1.2, first emerged in South Africa but has also been detected in New Zealan,England, China, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Mauritius, Portugal and Switzerland.
“All variants of concern (VoC’s) are monitored closely by the ministry and public health staff,” a health spokesperson in New Zealand said in a report on the Herald.
“New Zealand is in a fortunate position and it’s important that we’re able to continue to whole genome sequence all cases as this too is a crucial part of New Zealand’s surveillance and elimination strategy,” the statement said.
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Health authorities are now closely watching the new variant as more countries grapples with the contagious Delta variant.
“What does that mean? It means that C. 1.2 variant has somehow mutated so fast and far that it is now the furthest mutated variant found to date. It has mutated the greatest genetic distance from the original Wuhan 1.0 strain – and implies potential troubles for 1.0 vaccines,” Epidemiologist Eric Feng said.
“It gets worse with C. 1.2. It has a 1.7x to 1.8x faster mutation rate than the average of all other variants. The authors note this coincides with the emergence pattern of other really bad VOC variants,” he added. (TDT)
