Pandemic: Corona mutation in South Africa "has obviously been circulating for months"

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It was a lavish press conference that South Africa's Minister of Health Zweli Mkhize invited to on Friday, and he shared the podium with leading doctors in the country.

And what they had to say is causing serious concern around the world.

Because a similar mutation of the corona virus has been discovered in South Africa as in England.

The variant called 501st V2 could be behind the exponential spread of the second wave of infections in the country, suspects Mkhize, who is one of the more capable people in President Cyril Ramaphosa's cabinet.

Around 58 million people live in South Africa, and this week the country passed the threshold of 10,000 daily infections for the first time since the beginning of August.

And 90 percent of the samples for which a genome analysis was most recently initiated in South Africa showed the 501st V2 variant - although that is not representative, the focus was on the hotspots.

There are no indications of a higher mortality rate in South Africa compared to the first wave.

However, a higher proportion of younger people without risk factors fell ill there in the past few weeks than before.

The mutation in the virus is spreading faster than the first wave, the researchers said, and it is now believed to be in most of South Africa's provinces. 

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As head of the Department of Medical Virology at the University of Stellenbosch, the German scientist Wolfgang Preiser was involved in the discovery of the new variant.

“The variations in England and South Africa are similar, but presumably originated independently of one another,” says Preiser WELT.

The rather rapid spread could possibly be explained by a greater bond strength to the surface molecule on the target cell.

“That could mean a higher infectivity.

A clue for this is that we find a higher viral load in patients with this virus variant.

But these are very early dates and have yet to be confirmed. "

The research team is currently investigating whether the changes in the surface protein mean that antibodies, which are formed by a natural infection or vaccination, bind more poorly and are therefore less effective.

"That is currently speculation, we are also investigating it on the basis of repeated infections," says Preiser, "if it is not possible to stop the spread of the virus, then one must expect such variants to emerge at some point."

Laboratory technicians test a blood sample for HIV infection at the Institute for Reproductive Health and HIV (RHI) in Johannesburg

Source: dpa / Denis Farrell

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It is assumed that the variant originated in the structurally weak Eastern Cape, says Preisler.

One theory that has not been proven is that there are a high number of not well treated HIV patients in whom the virus can presumably multiply better and over a longer period in the body than in people with an intact immune system.

The virus spread from there to other provinces.

Several employees with infections recently also fell out in his laboratory.

Health Minister Mkhize sees all of this as “no reason to panic”, masks, disinfecting and keeping your distance are ultimately also effective against this mutation.

He is apparently in line with President Ramaphosa, who did not comment on the new development until Sunday evening.

Maximilian Gertler, epidemiologist and medical director of the corona test center at the Berlin Charité, are very concerned about the evidence of the increased risk of infection.

"It can hardly be assumed that a more contagious variant will simply be limited to England and South Africa," Gertler told WELT, "it has obviously been circulating for months and has obviously already crossed national borders." 

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This is particularly dangerous for countries with weak treatment structures, as is the case in many African countries: "Here, preventing new infections is the most important tool in the fight against the epidemic." However, Gertler warns against drawing premature conclusions: "There are, for example So far there is no evidence that the new variant will lead to infections more frequently in vaccinated people. "

Unlike England, the South African government has not adopted any additional restrictions on public life.

Last Monday, when the mutation was not yet publicly known, Ramaphosa had reacted to the increase in cases with more cosmetic-looking tightenings, such as a slightly longer night curfew and the closure of individual beaches.

The restaurants, however, remain open. 

It is obvious that in South Africa, after the considerable economic damage of the first lockdown (the economy shrank by 51 percent in the second quarter compared to the same period last year), decisions will be largely based on economic criteria.

For the first time in democratic history, one had to take a loan from the International Monetary Fund, viewed rather skeptically by the government.

The country is still in the lowest measure level "Level 1".

In April and May, when the virus did not spread as quickly as it did these days, you were at "Level 5". 

Overall, people seemed more vigilant at the time: In the past few days, South Africa was embarrassed when the government admitted to having missed the deadline for a vaccine deposit to the World Health Organization.

Mkhize affirmed that this has now been made up for.

The opposition complained that the vaccination strategy generally lacked the necessary transparency. 

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Germany, however, reacts decisively to the news from the Cape.

On Sunday evening, Health Minister Jens Spahn (CDU) announced on ARD that on Monday all entries to England from South Africa would also be restricted with a regulation, “because there is a comparable mutation of the virus there too”.

It is still unclear what this means for the German tourists who, despite the pandemic and against urgent appeals from the German government, are spending their Christmas vacation in South Africa.

In April and May, the German embassy organized the return flight of 4,000 stranded tourists from Cape Town alone - an enormous effort.

One can only speculate how many German vacationers are currently in South Africa, there is no obligation to register.

But the demand was not as low as Lufthansa thought a few months ago.

The greatly reduced flight connections had meanwhile been increased somewhat.

With a total of 921,000 confirmed cases and 24,691 deaths since the beginning of the pandemic, South Africa is by far the most affected African country.

The actual number of infections is likely to be much higher despite the extremely strict lockdown at times.

In studies, for example, antibodies to the coronavirus were found in around 40 percent of blood samples from HIV patients and pregnant women.