The National Institute for Communicable Diseases of South Africa (NICD) said in a statement on Monday, 30 August 2021, that the country’s scientists are monitoring a new variant of the coronavirus. This variant has an unusual mutation rate with a frequency that has increased in recent months.
In South Africa, scientists successfully detected a variant of the coronavirus on Monday, 30 August. The announcement was made in a press release issued by the National Institute for Communicable Diseases of South Africa (NICD). This is “C.1.2”, which was reported the week of 23 to 29 August in all South African provinces but also in China, Mauritius, New Zealand and the United Kingdom.
The Kwazulu-Natal Research, Innovation and Sequencing Platform (KRISP) reported this variant the same week in a study not yet published. “C.1.2” has been detected in all South African provinces.
NICD scientists say on Monday that C.1.2 is “present only at very low levels” and that it is too early to determine its evolution. At this point, we don’t have any experimental data to confirm how he reacts in terms of antibody sensitivity, explained NICD researcher Penny Moore. We have considerable confidence that vaccines distributed in South Africa will continue to protect us from serious cases and death.” said these researchers in the press release.
