A coronavirus variant first detected in South Africa ‘could be more infectious’ than other mutations and has the potential to ‘evade vaccines’, scientists have said.
The strain of Covid-19 is said to be the most mutated away from the original illness that was first seen in Wuhan, China.
Studies have raised concerns about the strain, which is known as C.1.2, The Mirror reports.
It was first identified by scientists in South Africa in May and has since been found in England, China, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Mauritius, New Zealand, Portugal and Switzerland.
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According to experts at South Africa’s National Institute for Communicable Diseases and the KwaZulu-Natal Research Innovation and Sequencing Platform, the C.1.2 strain has a mutation rate of about 41.8 mutations per year.
This is near twice the current global mutation rate of any other Variant of Concern (VOC) to date, meaning it changes more rapidly than other strains.
Researchers discovered a monthly increase in the number of C.1.2 genomes in South Africa, rising from 0.2% in May to 1.6% in June and 2.0% in July.
The Alpha, Beta and Gamma variants have also shown a short period of consistent increase.
But, while more research is needed ‘to determine the functional impact of these mutations, scientists have warned that the latest variant, which has ‘mutated substantially’, could be better at evading antibodies and immune responses.
In the report, which was published in the journal Nature, the scientists said: “We describe and characterise a newly identified SARS-CoV-2 lineage with several spike mutations that are likely to have emerged in a major metropolitan area in South Africa after the first wave of the epidemic, and then to have spread to multiple locations within two neighbouring provinces.
“We show that this lineage has rapidly expanded and become dominant in three provinces, at the same time as there has been a rapid resurgence in infections.
“Although the full import of the mutations is not yet clear, the genomic and epidemiological data suggest that this variant has a selective advantage—from increased transmissibility, immune escape or both.
“These data highlight the urgent need to refocus the public health response in South Africa on driving transmission down to low levels, not only to reduce hospitalisations and deaths but also to limit the spread of this lineage and the further evolution of the virus.”
Public Health, England published a report earlier this month that revealed that the C.1.2 strain was among the 10 variants being monitored by scientists in the UK.
Meanwhile, in April, scientists found another South African strain — called B.1.351 — had the potential to ‘break through’ the Pfizer jab.
The study compared almost 400 people who had tested positive for Covid-19, 14 days or more after they received one or two doses of the vaccine, against the same number of unvaccinated patients with the disease.