COVID-19 variant - The African Mirror

Dec

2021

The race is on to trace the new COVID-19 variant

ALISTAIR SMOUT, FRANCESCO GUARASCIO and CHEN LIN GOVERNMENTS around the world are urgently scouring databases for recent cases of COVID-19 infections, screening travellers and decoding the viral genomes of the new variant as they try to measure how far it has spread. The pace of the work highlights the pressure on governments and public health authorities to decide quickly whether they need to take unpopular, economically damaging steps to curb Omicron's spread. Data shows it was circulating before it was officially identified in southern Africa last week and it has since been detected in more than a dozen countries. Work…

Jun

2021

By The African Mirror

Tunisia detects six cases of Delta variant

COVID-19

TUNISIA has detected six cases of the Delta COVID-19 variant, first detected in India, the health ministry said, amid a rapid spread of the virus in the North African country. After successfully containing the virus in the first wave last year, Tunisia is grappling with a rise in infections. As cases have mounted and intensive care wards almost filled, Tunisia last week imposed a lockdown in four governates. Tunisia has recorded 387,000 coronavirus cases and about 14,233 deaths.

May

2021

By The African Mirror

‘Indian variant” found in Kenya

COVID-19

A variant of COVID-19 first diagnosed in India has been detected in Kenya, the health ministry said yesterday, days after the same variant was detected in neighbouring Uganda. The health ministry last week said Kenya was suspending flights to and from India.

Apr

2021

By The African Mirror

Tunisia runs out of intensive care beds

COVID-19

TUNISIAN hospitals have run out of intensive care beds amid a surge in COVID-19 cases, a member of the independent scientific committee that advises the government said yesterday. Amenallah Messadi told Reuters the health system had been pushed to the point of collapse by a rise in cases driven by the more infectious coronavirus variant first detected in Britain. The scientific committee was considering whether to recommend another border closure to avoid the spread of another variant first detected in Brazil, he added. Tunisia briefly closed its borders during the first wave of the virus. "The situation is very critical,…

Apr

2021

By The African Mirror

Sputnik shot less effective vs S.A variant

COVID-19

RUSSIA’S Sputnik V shot is less effective against the South African COVID-19 variant but still does better than other vaccines, the lead scientist behind it was quoted as saying on Friday. "With regards to the 'South African' variant, the effectiveness of the antibodies produced by Sputnik V, like all other vaccines, against it declines," Alexander Gintsburg said in an interview with the Interfax news agency. He said that Sputnik V was tested against the British and South African variants, as well as the original strain, first detected in China's Wuhan province, by laboratories in the United States. The labs used…

Jan

2021

By The African Mirror

South African scientists who discovered new COVID-19 variant share what they know

SCIENCE, TECH AND INNOVATION

LATE last year the Network for Genomic Surveillance in South Africa (NGS-SA) led by the KwaZulu-Natal Research Innovation and Sequencing Platform (KRISP) identified a rapidly spreading new variant of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. The new variant, called 501Y.V2, raises critical questions – including whether current vaccines and treatments will still be effective. With the support of the South African Medical Research Council and the Department of Science and Innovation, a group of leading South African virologists, immunologists, vaccinologists, infectious disease specialists and microbiologists has since formed a consortium to address specific scientific questions surrounding 501Y.V2. The knowledge they…

Jan

2021

By The African Mirror

First cases of ‘SA variant’ detected

COVID-19

PANAMA has registered its first case of a COVID-19 variant matching a strain of the virus detected in South Africa, the Central American country's health ministry has announced. The variant was detected in a 40-year-old native of Zimbabwe who entered Panama on January 5 from South Africa. The person did not show symptoms and has been isolated, the ministry said in a statement. Portugal has also reported its first case of the South African coronavirus variant. Health institute official Ricardo Jorge told Lusa news agency: "We are undergoing due process to rapidly test and interrupt this potential chain of transmission." …

Jan

2021

By The African Mirror

Data on AstraZeneca vaccine and S.African variant should come soon – UK expert

COVID-19

DATA on the highly contagious COVID-19 variant identified in England do not suggest that vaccines will be less effective against it, while data on the South African variant should be available within weeks, a top British vaccines expert has said. "We have the most data on the UK variant. That doesn't suggest that it will be any less well protected against by the vaccine," said Wei Shen Lim, chair of Covid-19 Immunisation on Britain's Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation. Asked specifically about the South African variant, he said that Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine trials had been conducted in South Africa which…

Jan

2021

By The African Mirror

South Africa testing vaccines on variant

COVID-19

ALEXANDER WINNING SOUTH African scientists are testing whether vaccines will be less effective against a COVID-19 variant first detected locally and hope for initial results within two weeks, a professor at the national communicable disease institute said. The variant, known as 501Y.V2, was identified by South African genomics experts late last year and is thought to be more contagious than older variants. Professor Penny Moore told Reuters the National Institute of Communicable Diseases had received samples from several local vaccine trials, including Oxford University and AstraZeneca's shot, and would try to find out whether antibody responses are reduced against 501Y.V2.…

Jan

2021

By The African Mirror

New variant: All you need to know

COVID-19

THERE is no indication that the coronavirus variant identified in South Africa is more transmissible than the one spreading fast in Britain, the World Health Organization's technical chief on COVID-19, Maria Van Kerkhove, has said. Van Kerhove said this as Britain began its third lockdown after Prime Minister Boris Johnson said a coronavirus variant first identified in Britain was spreading so fast it risked overwhelming the National Health Service within 21 days. UK scientists also expressed concern that vaccines being rolled out in Britain may not be able to protect against another variant that emerged in South Africa. The following…