SA Experts Confirm That COVID Variant is More Contagious
A panel of South African experts confirmed on Monday that the SA strain of COVID is 50% more transmissible than previous strains.
Collecting data from the main infection clusters around the country, the experts came to the conclusion that while more contagious, the new variant is not more lethal.
“There is no evidence the new COVID variant is more severe than the original variant,” said epidemiologist Professor Salim Abdool Karim, co-chair of the Ministry of Health’s scientific committee.
However, the SA healthy system has been strained by the sheer number of cases. Concerns over more transmissible variants have prompted the UK government to switch to administering the first dose of two-dose vaccines such as the one from Pfizer, and leaving an extended period before a second dose is administered, even though protection will wane over time.
Another panel member, Dr Waasila Jassat, said that although hospital admissions had increased, the overall death rate had not, supporting the case for the variant not being more lethal.
The spread of the variant in December prompted the government to reinstate its lockdown. It also resulted in many countries banning flights from South Africa in a bid to stem the variant. Prof Karim said that it was not yet known if current vaccines would protect against the SA variant, although studies were underway.
Another panel member, virologist Professor Alex Sigal stated: “The world has underestimated this virus.” He added that it was evolving and adapting to humans.
The experts also urged that it should not be referred to as the “South African variant”. The variant could have turned up anywhere in the world, and it was only thanks to the country’s excellent genomic surveillance that it was picked up at all, they said.
Source: Medical Xpress