COVID variants - The African Mirror

Feb

2022

South African scientists will study link between COVID variants and untreated HIV

JENNIFER RIGBY LEADING South African scientists are set to investigate COVID-19 and HIV in tandem, amid mounting evidence that the collision of the two pandemics could be generating new coronavirus variants. The team at the Network for Genomic Surveillance in South Africa (NGS-SA), which first alerted the world to the COVID variant Omicron, said it was time for a "systematic" investigation of what happens when patients with untreated HIV get COVID-19. A number of studies, including one published by the team last week, have found that people with weakened immune systems – such as patients with untreated HIV – can suffer…

Feb

2021

By The African Mirror

Trials show vaccine is effective against variants

COVID-19

CUREVAC’S chief Franz-Werner Haas disclosed yesterday that preliminary trials on animals of the company's COVID-19 vaccine candidate show it is effective against the UK and South African variants. Haas told EU lawmakers that the results of the preliminary trials on the vaccine's effects on variants would be published soon. He also said that the company expected its vaccine to be approved in the European Union by June.

Jan

2021

By The African Mirror

U.S. finds first cases of new variant, in South Carolina

COVID-19

JULIE STEENHUYSEN THE United States has found its first cases of a potent coronavirus variant first detected in South Africa, health officials in the state of South Carolina said on Thursday. Viruses mutate frequently, and several mutated viruses have been identified. The presence of the South African variant in the United States is especially concerning because several laboratory studies have shown that it reduces vaccine effectiveness. Another concern, according to the nominee for U.S. surgeon general, is that the South African variant could require larger doses of an antibody for treatment. "The thing that's troublesome now that we really need…

Jan

2021

By The African Mirror

New variant may reduce vaccine efficacy

COVID-19

THE new COVID-19 variant identified in South Africa can evade the antibodies that attack it in treatments using blood plasma from previously recovered patients and may reduce the efficacy of the current line of vaccines, scientists have said. Researchers are racing to establish whether the vaccines currently being rolled out across the globe are effective against the so-called 501Y.V2 variant, identified by South African genomics experts late last year in Nelson Mandela Bay. "This lineage exhibits complete escape from three classes of therapeutically relevant monoclonal antibodies," the team of scientists from three South African universities working with the National Institute…

Jan

2021

By The African Mirror

Global coronavirus cases surpass 90 million in battle on new variant

COVID-19

ROSHAN ABRAHAM and ANURAG MAAN WORLDWIDE coronavirus cases have surpassed 90 million, according to Reuters tally, as nations around the globe scramble to procure vaccines and continue to extend or reinstate lockdowns to fight new coronavirus variants. The new COVID-19 variants discovered initially in the United Kingdom and South Africa are rapidly spreading globally. The novel coronavirus has picked up pace in the past few months with about one-third of total cases registered in the last 48 days, according to a Reuters tally. Europe, which became the first region to report 25 million cases last week, remains the worst-affected area…

Jan

2021

By The African Mirror

Vaccine appears effective against new variants

COVID-19

MICHAEL ERMAN PFIZER Inc and BioNTech's COVID-19 vaccine appears able to protect against a key mutation in the highly transmissible new variants of the coronavirus discovered in Britain and South Africa, according to a laboratory study conducted by the U.S. drugmaker. The study by Pfizer and scientists from the University of Texas Medical Branch, which has not yet been peer-reviewed, indicated the vaccine was effective in neutralizing variants with the so-called N501Y mutation, situated on a portion of the virus that it uses to enter and infect cells. All of the vaccines already approved or in development use this outer…

Dec

2020

By The African Mirror

FACTBOX-First found in UK and South Africa, COVID variants cross the world

COVID-19

TWO variants of the coronavirus, first found in Britain and South Africa and more transmissible than the original, are spreading across the world. The World Health Organization says there is not enough information to determine whether the variants could undermine vaccines being rolled out across the globe. The following countries are among those that have reported variants of the novel coronavirus, first identified in China a year ago, among their populations. * The UNITED STATES reported its first known case of the variant B.1.1.7, originally documented in Britain, in Colorado - a man in his 20s with no recent travel…

Dec

2020

By The African Mirror

FACTBOX-COVID variants, found in UK and South Africa, travel the world

COVID-19

BRITISH Prime Minister Boris Johnson has said a variant of the coronavirus, which could be up to 70% more transmissible, is spreading rapidly in Britain. A separate variant, first found in South Africa, is also causing concern. The World Health Organization (WHO) says there is not enough information to determine whether the new variants could undermine vaccines being rolled out internationally. The following countries are among those that have reported variants of the novel coronavirus, first identified in China a year ago, among their populations. * SWITZERLAND has documented five cases of the variant from Britain and two cases of…