New South African Covid Variant Raises Concerns

A new variant of the coronavirus first discovered in South Africa has raised concerns among scientists that it may be more transmissible and better at evading the immunity provided by vaccines.

The variant is called B.1.1.529 but is likely to be known by the Greek letter Nu, as with the previous Alpha, Beta and Delta variants. Concerns were first raised on Tuesday this week, when South African authorities found samples with a significant number of worrying mutations.

Since then other samples have been found in Botswana and China, both originating in travellers from South Africa. 

The new variant is incredibly heavily mutated, with more than 30 changes to the spike protein: the part of the virus used to attack cells as well as the part which is targeted by the vaccines.

Prof Tulio de Oliveira, director of South Africa’s Centre for Epidemic Response and Innovation, described the variant as “very different” to its predecessors.

“This variant did surprise us, it had a big jump on evolution [and] had many more mutations than we expected,” he said. 

 Zooming in closely, there are ten mutations to the variant’s receptor binding domain, which is the part of the virus that first makes contact with our body’s cells. This is compared to just two mutations in the Delta variant which swept the world this summer. 

While mutations are not necessarily a bad thing, there are serious concerns that these changes could allow the virus to spread faster and even infect people who are immune to the other variants.

Prof Richard Lessels of the University of KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa explained “They give us concern this virus might have enhanced transmissibility, enhanced ability to spread from person to person, but might also be able to get around parts of the immune system”.

So far there have been 77 confirmed cases of the variant in South Africa’s Gauteng province, as well as four cases in Botswana and one in Hong Kong (which was directly linked to travel from South Africa).

However, there are concerns that the new variant is more difficult to detect and that as many as 90% of Covid cases in Gauteng are already caused by the mutated virus. 

Other countries have been quick to react to the news, with the United Kingdom suspending all flights from South Africa, Namibia, Lesotho, Botswana, Eswatini and Zimbabwe from 12 o’clock today. All six countries will also be added to the UK’s red list, meaning arrivals from there will have to quarantine for two weeks in a hotel at great personal expense. 

So far it is unclear whether the new variant is indeed more transmissible or evades immunity. Only 24% of South Africans are fully vaccinated at present, meaning more research is needed to see whether the present crop of vaccines are still effective.