A new covid variant that seems to be worse than the delta form has been found in South Africa, troubling scientists who say the strain has a high number of mutations. Via HuffPost:
The variant, which is being referred to as the B1.1.529 variant until the World Health Organization decides to assign it a letter of the Greek alphabet, is linked to 22 positive cases in South Africa so far, as well as cases in Hong Kong and Botswana among travelers from the country.
“You can be rest assured that as people move in the next coming weeks, this [variant] will be all over,” Dr. Joe Phaahla, South Africa’s health minister, said at a media briefing on Thursday. “Over the last four or five days, there has been more of an exponential rise [in cases].”
Several variants of COVID-19 have been cause for concern as the virus mutates, including the highly transmissible delta strain. Mutations are a prime fear among health officials, who worry new strains of the coronavirus could bypass the effectiveness of vaccines that have aided the reopening of society and limited severe illness and death among inoculated people.
Tulio de Oliveira, a professor at South Africa’s Network for Genomic Surveillance, said the new variant announced Thursday has a “very unusual constellation of mutations,” including more than 30 mutations in its spike proteins, which is responsible for the virus’s transmissibility.
