New South African variant of Covid-19: few cases but worrying contagiousness

Potentially very contagious, the new variant of Covid-19 has been discovered in South Africa.

Guillem Sartorio AFP / File

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A team of South African scientists announced Thursday, November 25 the discovery of a new variant of Covid-19.

The variant designated by the Greek letter "Mu" is considered "worrying" because of its many mutations. 

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The B1.1.529 variant, or Mu, was detected in South Africa 2 days ago. Its main characteristic is the high number of mutations it carries. But Professor Tulio de Oliveira, one of the leaders of the research, is still unaware of the impact they can have. Some mutations are already known, and he fears that this variant will prove to be " 

more contagious and better equipped to deceive the immune defenses of the human body,

 " he said on the South African news site, the

Daily Maverick

.  

The new variant has at least 32 mutations on the spike protein, the part that attaches to cells in our body, which is 30 more than the highly contagious Delta variant.

But for now, this Mu variant seems less contagious, indeed only a few dozen cases have been discovered

in South Africa, Botswana

, 1 in Hong Kong and 1 in Israel, each time on travelers from the south. of the African continent.  

Since the start of the epidemic, new variants have appeared and the fear is always that they reduce the effectiveness of vaccines, yet the Mu variant seems radically different from the Wuhan strain, which served as the basis for the design of the vaccines. .

Already travel restrictions 

France decided this Friday to suspend the arrivals of flights from southern Africa in order to avoid the importation into its territory of this new variant.

The UK and Germany have already taken the same measures regarding flights from South Africa.

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 Read also: The United Kingdom will ban travelers from six African countries because of the new variant

It will take "

several weeks

" to understand the level of transmissibility and virulence of the new variant, a WHO spokesperson said as experts met on November 26.

The UN agency also advises against travel restriction measures.

. 

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  • Health and medicine

  • South Africa

  • Coronavirus

  • Vaccines