New Corona Variant In South Africa, World again in Panic

Formally known as B.1.1.529, the World Health Organisation had designated it as a Variant of Concern, that indicates it is quite likely to be extremely transmissible and potentially replace the dominant  Delta variant. Though knowledge on it is still nascent, researchers across the world have been pointing to the variant having an unusually large number of mutations that in theory could make them more transmissible. B.1.1.529 variant has about 50 mutations overall, including more than 30 on the spike protein alone. The spike protein is the part of the virus that latches on to the surface of the human cell and is the most conspicuous part of the virus. The existing vaccines are designed to target the spike protein and the more mutations there are on them, the greater the odds that the virus has the ability to evade them.

The WHO has now designated this variant as ‘Omicron’ following the convention of naming variants for Greek alphabets such as Delta, Gamma and Alpha. This is based on the extent of its spread, its severity and how quicky it can transmit. The South African Health Ministry said in a briefing that the variant so far has been found in Botswana, South Africa and Hongkong, from traveller returning from South Africa. Ten cases have so far been confirmed. In South Africa, the most cases are from Guateng province where in Tshwane, part of Guateng, test positivity in the last three weeks has risen from 1% to 30%. The first known confirmed B.1.1.529 infection was from a specimen collected on 9 November 2021.