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A new Corona variant has been registered in Africa, according to the pan-African health agency Africa CDC. It was discovered in travelers from Tanzania in Angola, the head of Africa CDC, John Nkengasong, announced at a press conference on Thursday. He said the new variant has up to 40 mutations. “This is certainly a variant of concern,” he said.
“Unfortunately, we don’t know how this variant will respond to vaccines,” Nkengasong explained. There is now a surveillance system in Tanzania’s neighboring countries, while the mutant is being studied in South Africa, he said. On the continent, the highly contagious variant B.1.1.7, first discovered in the United Kingdom, has now been detected in 18 countries, according to the CDC, while the “South African” variant B.1.3.5.1 has been detected in 18 others.
East African Tanzania has not released data on Covid since the middle of last year. Even currently, there is no information on the exact number of cases there, CDC said. Tanzanian President John Magufuli, who died recently, had introduced comparatively loose Corona restrictions late in the day.
Meanwhile, Brazilian scientists at the Instituto Butantan research facility also identified a new variant of coronavirus in the city of Sorocaba, near São Paulo, that is believed to be similar to the South African one.
The variant was discovered in a 34-year-old woman who had mild symptoms, the news portal “G1” reported. According to Paulo Menezes, director of the Coronavirus Emergency Center of São Paulo, the patient had indicated that she had not recently traveled within or outside Brazil.
— source: kleinezeitung.at/picture: pixabay.com
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