By Ayo Kehinde with Agency Report
Scientists are battling to understand the new coronavirus variant detected in South Africa and found in three other countries, namely Hong Kong, Israel and Botswana.
Scientists say they are very worried about it because the variant is very different to the others that have emerged so far.
Travellers from South Africa are linked with the spread of the new variant of the virus to these countries.
According to a report by the BBC, the variant is the most heavily mutated version yet, which means vaccines, which were designed using the original strain from Wuhan, may not be as effective.
The medium said “the new variant is yet to be given a more memorable name, like Delta or Beta, and right now is known as B.1.1.529. The WHO is expected to name it on Friday.
The WHO says so far fewer than 100 sample sequences have been reported. Cases have mainly been confirmed in South Africa, but have also been detected in Hong Kong, Israel and Botswana. The global health organisation said it will take a few weeks to understand the impact of the new variant, as scientists work to determine how transmissible it is.
In Hong Kong, the variant spread during hotel quarantine between a person who had arrived from South Africa and another hotel guest who tested positive a few days later, the Department of Health revealed. Both were fully vaccinated.
Only about 24 per cent of South Africa’s population is fully vaccinated, which could see a rapid spread of cases there, Dr Mike Tildesley, a member of the Scientific Pandemic Influenza Modelling group (Spi-M), told the BBC on Friday.
Meanwhile more countries are tightening their travel restrictions after the discovery of a new coronavirus variant in South Africa earlier this week.
The UK, Singapore and Japan are among those rushing in stricter quarantine measures and banning flights from South Africa and neighbouring countries. The EU is proposing to ban flights from the region across the whole bloc.
