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November 26, 2021 Experts have described the

South African variant

, known as B.1.1.529, "one of the worst seen so far" so dangerous that it could 'pierce' the immunity of vaccines. There are currently no confirmed cases in Great Britain, while

59 positives have been identified in South Africa, Hong Kong and Botswana

. 



British health secretary Sajid Javid in announcing the closure of the borders noted that in South Africa the

new variant of Covid-19 has a large number of mutations

, attributing to this an exponential surge in infections, a tenfold increase in cases since the beginning of the month.



"Unfortunately we have detected a new variant which is cause for concern," virologist Tulio De Oliveira said at an urgently called press conference. The variant, scientifically named b.1.1.529, "has a very large number of mutations," said the scientist,

expressing the hope that the World Health Organization will now give it the name of a letter in the Greek alphabet

, such as already happened for the previous ones. The variant was also detected in Botswana and Hong Kong among some travelers from South Africa, he added.



Busy day on B.1.1.529 - a variant of great concern - The world should provide support to South Africa and Africa and not discriminate or isolate it!

By protecting and supporting it, we will protect the world!

A plea for billionaires and financial institutions.

1/8 tweets

- Tulio de Oliveira (@Tuliodna) November 25, 2021

WHO said it is "closely monitoring" the flagged variant and should call a technical meeting today to determine whether an "interest" or "concern" variant should be designated. "

Initial analyzes show that this variant has a large number of mutations

that require and will be the subject of further study," added the World Health Organization.



The exponential numbers of infections are confirmed by South African Health Minister Joe Phaahla, who expressed "serious concern" about the variant, labeling it as potentially "a serious threat". Last Wednesday,

infections in the country reached 1,200 in 24 hours

, compared to 106 at the beginning of the month. An alarming figure, although the authorities had foreseen a possible fourth wave starting from mid-December due to the movements in view of the Christmas holidays.



The government-run National Institute for Communicable Diseases (Nicd) said

22 positive cases of variant b.1.1.529 have been detected in the country following genomic sequencing

.

The Nicd also said that the number of detected cases and the positivity index are "rapidly increasing" in three of the country's provinces, including Gauteng, where the economic capital Johannesburg and the administrative capital of the Pretoria are located.

A cluster outbreak was recently identified, concentrated in a higher education institution in pretoria, the institute added.



Last year, also in South Africa, the beta variant of the virus emerged, soon supplanted for transmissibility by the Delta, originally detected in India.

According to the scientists, the new variant b.1.1.529 has at least 10 mutations, compared to two in the Delta and three in the Beta.