New Covid-19 variant with multiple mutations sparking concerns

Johannesburg — South African scientists have identified a new coronavirus variant – its number of mutations sparking concerns.

First identified in the South African provinces of Mpumalanga and Gauteng, the variant, called C.1.2, is more highly mutated than others flagged by the World Health Organization (WHO).

Since being identified, the variant has spread to most South African provinces and seven other countries in Africa, Europe, Asia and Oceania, reported Bloomberg.

The evolution of the variant was described in a paper, awaiting peer review, by South Africa’s National Institute for Communicable Diseases and the KwaZulu-Natal Research Innovation and Sequencing Platform.

It is said that C.1.2 quickly mutated since the discovery and is currently between 44 and 59 mutations away from the original virus identified in Wuhan.

Furthermore, the variant contains numerous mutations already associated with increased transmissibility.

The scientists noted that the C.1.2 variant has a heightened ability to evade antibodies found in other mutations, although their impacts on the virus have not been fully studied.

Infectious disease specialist Richard Lessells told Reuters that the C.1.2 might have more immune evasion properties than the highly infectious Delta variant, based on its mutations patterns.

To date, the WHO has four variants of concern, namely the Alpha (B.1.1.7), Beta (B.1.351), Gamma (P.1) and Delta (B.1.617.2) variants.

Mutations are first categorised as variants of interests (current variants Eta, Iota, Kappa and Lambda) before being tagged as a concern should it pose increased risks.

According to WHO, variants of concern have increased transmissibility or detrimental change in Covid-19 epidemiology, increased virulence, or decreased effectiveness of public health and social measures or available diagnostics, vaccines, therapeutics. /TISG

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