China News Service, January 6 According to the official website of the Guangdong Provincial Center for Disease Control and Prevention, on January 6, the Guangdong Provincial Center for Disease Control and Prevention successfully isolated the 501Y.V2 South African mutation from a throat swab imported from a South African case of new coronary pneumonia. Strain.
This is the second time the Guangdong Provincial Center for Disease Control and Prevention discovered and successfully isolated the mutant strain of the new coronavirus since it found the B.1.1.7 mutant in a throat swab sample from a confirmed case of new coronary pneumonia imported into the UK on January 2.
The case is a South African immigrant under closed-loop management, male, 55 years old, South African national, airline pilot.
On the evening of December 8, 2020, he entered Guangzhou from Singapore and collected nasopharyngeal swabs for nucleic acid testing. The result was positive.
Subsequently, the case was transferred by a negative pressure ambulance to the Eighth People's Hospital of Guangzhou City for further isolation and treatment.
On December 31, the Guangdong Provincial Center for Disease Control and Prevention received samples of throat swabs collected by the Eighth People’s Hospital of Guangzhou City, and immediately began virus isolation and gene sequencing analysis. On the evening of January 5, 2021, the original sample and virus Re-checking and identification of the isolated culture showed that the virus genome sequence belongs to the B.1.351 subtype, suggesting it is a 501Y.V2 South African mutant.
The case is still being treated in the Eighth People's Hospital of Guangzhou City.
Compared with the reference genome Wuh01 (sequence number MN908947), the 501Y.V2 South African mutant genome sequence has 23 nucleotide variants, except that it has the same N501Y mutation as the British mutant B.1.1.7 subtype. The point is that it also contains two key mutations in the S protein E484K and K417N that have a potentially important impact on the virus's ability to infect.
The 501Y.V2 South African mutant strain was first discovered in South Africa in mid-October 2020, and became the main local virus strain in early November 2020.
At present, the mutant strain is spreading rapidly in South Africa, and gradually replaced other types of new coronaviruses circulating in the Eastern Cape, Western Cape and KwaZulu-Natal provinces of the country.
According to the World Health Organization, as of January 5, 2021, the mutant has been found in 7 countries except South Africa.
Experts from the World Health Organization believe that the spread and pathogenicity of the South African mutant strain needs further research.
The Guangdong Provincial Center for Disease Control and Prevention has successively discovered the British mutant strain of the new coronavirus and the South African mutant strain, both of which were found by retrospective gene sequencing analysis of samples of confirmed cases and asymptomatic infections imported from Guangdong Province since September last year.
These cases can be captured by the sensitive disease surveillance system of Guangdong Province and brought into closed-loop management in a timely manner, resulting in minimal risk of community infection.
The Guangdong Provincial Center for Disease Control and Prevention will continue to strengthen research on mutant strains of the new crown virus, closely follow the assessment of the immune protection effect of the new crown vaccine on the mutant strain, strengthen the gene sequencing analysis and monitoring of the mutant strain, and further implement various prevention and control measures to ensure Related mutant strains did not cause subsequent transmission in Guangdong Province.