Alexander Winning, Alistair Smout

JOHANNESBURG/LONDON – Authorities all over the globe have reacted alarmingly to a newly discovered coronavirus type in South Africa.

Britain, India and the European Union have all announced stricter border controls. This is in response to scientists performing tests to find out if this mutation is resistant to vaccines or more transmissible.

WITNESS WHERE, AND WHEN WAS A NEW VARIANT FINDED?

South African scientists discovered that a few of the variants known as B.1.1.529 were present in samples from November 14-16.

South African scientists sequenced further genomes Wednesday and informed the government they were worried. The WHO was asked to call its technical working group regarding virus evolution on Friday by the WHO.

About 100 variants have been identified in the country, most of them from Gauteng province where Johannesburg and Pretoria lie.

WHY IS IT WRONG FOR SCIENTISTS

SARSCoV-2, which is responsible for COVID-19, and all viruses change with time. Many changes do not have any effect on the properties of viruses.

Some changes can affect their spread and severity as well as the effectiveness of vaccinations.

The variant was deemed to be particularly dangerous because it contains more than 30 mutations for the spike protein virus that is used by viruses to infect human cells. Officials at UK Health say this has been a matter of concern.

This is almost twice the amount of the Delta variant, and it makes it significantly different than the coronavirus original that the current COVID vaccines are designed to combat.

South African scientists believe some of the mutations may be linked to resistance to antibodies or enhanced transmissibility. But others have not been fully studied so their full implications are unclear.

Susan Hopkins, the Chief Medical Advisor of UK Health Security Agency said that there were some variants not seen previously so it is not possible to know how they interact with each other. It was therefore considered the most complex variant.

To confirm whether it is transmissible or infectious, more testing will be required.

Maria van Kerkhove (WHO’s technical leader on COVID-19), said that the work would take several weeks. To contain the virus, vaccines will remain an important tool.

After infection with B.1.1.529, no unusual symptoms were reported. However, like other variants of the virus, there have been some cases where individuals may be asymptomatic. South Africa’s National Institute for Communicable Diseases said that they are not aware of any.

WHERE HAS THE VARIANT BEEN DETECTED ELSEWHERE?

According to South African scientists, early indications from the diagnostic labs suggest that it is spreading rapidly in Gauteng. It may also be found in eight other provinces.

South Africa nearly doubled its daily infection rate to 24655 on Thursday. Although South African scientists believe it to be responsible for the resurgence, the NICD has not yet confirmed the claim.

Four cases were reported by neighbouring Botswana, which said they had been detected. They all came on diplomatic missions and then fled.

Hong Kong is home to one such case. He was a South African traveler. Israel has another, and he’s a Malawian traveler returning to South Africa. Belgium, however, has the first European case.

Scientists believe that the strain was detected early in South Africa’s genomic surveillance.

International GISAID has identified 58 B.1.1.529 cases in South Africa and six in Botswana. Two in Hong Kong are also included in the open GISAID database.

This variant can be distinguished easily in PCR testing from the Delta variation, which is the most prevalent and infectious COVID-19 variant. It has the S-gene Drop-out mutation, which is different from the Delta variant.

However, it isn’t a singular identifier since the Alpha mutation, which was identified first in Britain, also contains that mutation.

HOW DO THE WORLD HELTH ORGANIZATION LABE VARIANTS

On Friday, the U.N. agency stated that its advisors had recommended that the variant should be designated as one of serious concern. The Greek name Omicron was given to it.

This label can be applied to a disease if it’s more contagious or virulent than other vaccines, or a combination thereof. It is also given a Greek nickname, according to the WHO website.

There are four additional variants of concern that the WHO identified: Alpha Beta Gamma Delta.

It identified two variants of the species as one of its interest. These are Lambda (in Peru in December 2020) and Mu (in Colombia in January).

This means that they have genetic mutations known or predicted to alter virus characteristics, such as transmission and disease severity.

This would be a sign that it has caused substantial community transmission, multiple COVID-19 Clusters in several countries and an increasing relative prevalence.