Courtesy: Centers for Disease Control
COVID19-SPORES-PHOTO
SOUTH AFRICA (77WABC) – Another day, another COVID-19 variant has now been discovered.
The C.1.2. variant was discovered in South Africa by the KwaZulu-Natal Research Innovation and Sequencing Platform, known as Krisp, and the National Institute for Communicable Diseases. It was first flagged in May and has since been spotted in most of South Africa’s 9 provinces as well as the Democratic Republic of Congo, Mauritius, Portugal, New Zealand, and Switzerland.
It seems to have an unusually high mutation rate and more mutations than other variants of concern (VOCs) or variants of interest (VOIs).
Researchers found C.1.2 has a mutation rate of about 41.8 mutations per year, nearly double the current global mutation rate.
In the report, published in Nature, the investigators stated, “We describe and characterize 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 neighboring provinces.”
According to Bloomberg, the researchers said the mutations seen in this variant give it “increased transmissibility” and an “increased ability to evade antibodies,” such as those provided by previous infection and recovery or vaccination.
