The coronavirus variant in South Africa “is more of a problem” than one in the UK

A variant of coronavirus identified in South Africa is more problematic than the strain found in the UK, the British health minister said, as both strains continue to spread rapidly.

Speaking to the BBC on Monday, Health Secretary Matt Hancock said the option found in South Africa was particularly worrying.

“I am incredibly concerned about the South African version and that is why we have taken the steps we have taken to restrict all flights in South Africa,” he told the BBC’s Today program.

“This is a very, very significant issue … and it’s even more of an issue than the new UK version.”

Both the United Kingdom and South Africa are battling an increase in Covid-19 infections, which have been largely attributed to new mutations in the virus that make it more communicable.

The new variant of the United Kingdom was first identified in Kent, south-east England, in December. The British authorities have alerted the World Health Organization to its appearance.

Experts note that although the new variant makes the virus easier to spread, it does not seem to make it more deadly. However, hospitals in the UK are under pressure from a dramatic increase in infections and hospitalizations.

Questions have been raised about how coronavirus vaccines will work against new variants.

A number of experts said they expected vaccines – such as those from Pfizer and BioNTech and Oxford / AstraZeneca University – to protect against new strains.

In early December, WHO chief scientist Soumya Swaminathan tried to allay fears about the variants, telling the BBC it was “very unlikely” that the latest mutations would make the current vaccines work. The WHO said further investigations were needed “to understand the impact of specific mutations on viral properties and the effectiveness of diagnosis, therapy and vaccines”.

Oxford University professor of medicine Regius John Bell said on Sunday that the variant identified in South Africa was still worrying.

“They both have multiple mutations, different in them, so they’re not a single mutation,” he told Times Radio. “And the mutations associated with the South African form are indeed quite substantial changes in the structure of the protein (the tip of the virus).”

He said there were questions about whether the Pfizer / BioNTech and Oxford University / AstraZeneca vaccines would be “deactivated” in the presence of such mutations.

The team behind the Oxford University jab has investigated the effect of the variants on its vaccine, he said, adding that his gut feeling is that it will still be effective against the strain identified in the UK, but was more uncertain about the identified one. . in South Africa.

However, he told the radio station that if the vaccine does not work on this variant, then it is possible that the vaccines can be adapted and this will not last as long as a year.

Coronavirus vaccines are the only bright spot in a pandemic that continues to rage in the West. The UK launched the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine on Monday after launching the Pfizer / BioNTech shot in December.

Meanwhile, restrictions on public life continue, and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has suggested that more restrictions could be introduced in England. Many parts of the country are already effectively closed, with all but the main stores closed, and people have been told to stay home as long as possible. However, additional restrictions could be introduced in some parts of the country with more relaxed measures.

The UK has now reported more than 2.6 million cases of the virus and more than 75,000 deaths to date, according to a report from Johns Hopkins University, and the new virus has led to an increase in infections in London and the South East it is beginning to appear in other parts of the country.

In South Africa, more than 1.1 million cases and nearly 30,000 deaths have been reported, and the new strain has become dominant in the Western Cape, Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal.

The variant initially identified in the United Kingdom has also been discovered in some European countries and the United States, leading many nations to ban flights from the United Kingdom. For its part, the United Kingdom has banned visitors from South Africa.