The World Health Organization will hold talks about the new COVID-19 variant found in South Africa. Concern over the variant has prompted several countries to suspend and limit flights from the region. DW has the latest.
Another dangerous mutant variant of the COVID-19 virus has been discovered in Southern Africa. It’s called B.1.1.529 and doesn’t seem to have a Greek letter yet.
What do we know about the variant?
B.1.1.529 has multiple mutations that could help it evade the body's immune response and make it more transmissible, South African scientists said on Thursday.
While the delta variant has two mutations and the beta variant has three, the B.1.1.529 variant has at least 32 spike protein mutations.
Younger people appear to be contracting and spreading the newly identified variant, but the coming weeks will be key in determining how severe the variant is, scientists have said.
Many countries including the UK, Japan, and Singapore have already banned travel to and from Southern Africa. But it may already be too late to confine this variant geographically. B.1.1.529 has already been discovered in Belgium. Yes, Patient Zero in Belgium was unvaccinated. 🤬
First European case of B.1.1.529 variant identified in Belgium
A first case in Europe of the new variant of Covid-19 has been identified in Belgium in an unvaccinated young adult woman who developed mild flu-like symptoms 11 days after travelling to Egypt via Turkey.
The patient did not report any links with South Africa or other countries in southern Africa. None of her family members have developed symptoms. The patient was said to have a high viral load at the time of diagnosis by researchers at the universities, KU Leuven and UZ Leuven.
It should be mentioned that this variant was quickly discovered and reported to the World Health Organization by South African scientists. Public health authorities have been getting better at spotting these variants and taking action to prevent their spread.
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