South Africa identifies new variant with most mutations ever of SARS-CoV-2 virus
According to a VNA reporter in Pretoria, South African scientists have identified a new variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus that has mutations different from the original virus discovered in Wuhan province (China). Notably, this variant has more mutations than any other variant discovered so far worldwide.
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| Medical staff take COVID-19 test samples from people in Richmond, Johannesburg, South Africa. Photo: AFP/TTXVN |
According to an unpublished report from the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) and the KwaZulu-Natal Genome and Research Innovation Unit, the new variant is a variant of concern (VOI), assigned to the PANGO C.1.2 lineage, or C.1.2 for short. The variant evolved from C.1, one of the dominant strains of the virus that dominated South Africa’s first wave of COVID-19 infections last year and was last detected in January 2021.
C.1.2 was first detected in South Africa's Mpumalanga and Gauteng provinces in May 2021 as the country struggled to contain the third wave of COVID-19 infections. To date, the variant has been detected in most provinces in South Africa and in seven other countries across Africa, Europe, Asia and Oceania.
According to the study, C.1.2 has 41.8 mutations per year. The rate of spread of this variant is about 1.7 times faster than the current global rate and 1.8 times faster than the initial estimate of the evolution of the SARS-CoV-2 virus. As of August 20, 80 sequences matching the C.1.2 lineage were listed on the open-access database GISAID (Global Initiative on Sharing Avian Influenza Data).
South Africa’s Deputy Health Minister Anban Pilla said the prevalence of the new variant in tested samples “is very low at this stage.” However, the number of C.1.2 genomes sequenced in South Africa has increased month-on-month, similar to what was seen in the early days of the Beta and Delta variants. In May 2021, C.1.2 accounted for 0.2% of all sequenced genomes. In June, that number rose to 1.6% and by July, it was 2%.
According to the researchers, the available figures "are likely to be an incomplete representation of the spread and frequency of this variant in South Africa and globally".
Cathrine Scheepers, one of the study's lead authors, said the new variant “may have emerged after a prolonged COVID-19 infection and accumulated additional mutations, potentially escaping the immune response.”
The chair of South Africa's National Vaccine Advisory Committee, Professor Barry Schoub, confirmed that C.1.2 is still being thoroughly investigated, and it remains to be seen whether this variant may be more dangerous than other variants of concern.
