Coronavirus mutation similar to British variant identified in South Africa
- Mutated strain has seen new infections spike after months of falling numbers
- South Africa has reported more coronavirus infections than any other country in Africa, with new cases peaking at about 13,000 a day in July.
In Cape Town and surrounding areas, almost half the population had Covid-19 by the end of the summer, but cases there have been rising again since October, the South African researchers said in a paper published on the preprint website Medrxiv.org, which means it has not been peer-reviewed.
The strain causing the second wave carries N501Y, the mutation found in the British variant that prompted the government to impose new lockdowns and some countries to close their borders to British travellers.
But the researchers said genetic tracing suggested the South African strain had nothing to do with the one found in Britain.
“It is possible that high levels of population immunity could have driven the selection of this lineage,” said the team led by Professor Tulio de Oliveira from the University of KwaZulu-Natal in Durban.
A government epidemiologist in Shanghai said the study could disrupt the mass vaccination programmes being rolled out in countries like China.
Inoculating a large proportion of the population could build herd community but also lead to new strains, she said.