Why is the new variant of South Africa so scary? UK bans travel to SA

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Britain tonight banned all arrivals from South Africa, as well as travel to the nation, after discovering two cases of a mutated Covid-19 strain causing a massive second wave among young people in the country.

The new mutant, named 501.V2, was announced in Cape Town last Friday and is considered a more extreme variant than the new British Covid strain that has plunged millions into miserable Christmas lockdowns.

Cases in South Africa have increased from less than 3,000 per day in early December to more than 9,500 per day, with the mutant accounting for up to 90 percent of these new infections.

More than 8,500 were hospitalized – more than the country’s first wave peak of 8,300 inpatients.

Matt Hancock said: “This new variant is very worrying as it is even more transmissible and appears to have mutated further when the new variant was discovered in the UK.”

Tour operators flew from London to South Africa in early October.

Virgin Atlantic began operating four weekly flights between London and Johannesburg on October 18, while two flights have arrived from Cape Town since Monday.

The company flies Boeing 787-9 aircraft with 290 people on each trip to South Africa – meaning more than 11,000 people could travel under normal conditions. However, the Covid-19 pandemic has significantly reduced the number of passengers traveling.

British Airways has been flying to Johannesburg and Cape Town seven times a week since October 1st.

This means there have been more than 100 BA and Virgin Atlantic flights between the two countries since flights resumed.

The UK, Germany, Switzerland, Turkey, Israel and Mauritius have banned flights from South Africa to stop the spread of the mutant, which is believed to cause more acute symptoms than other variants in young people.

The UK and South Africa are both suffering from a coronavirus resurgence, which they attribute to newly identified mutations in the disease

South Africa’s coronavirus mutant is driving a second wave, and more than 8,500 have been hospitalized – more than the country’s first wave peak of 8,300 inpatients

In a series of tweets labeled an “urgent update”, Secretary of Transportation Grant Shapps wrote, “I have decided to temporarily suspend flights and arrivals entering England from SOUTH AFRICA from SOUTH AFRICA tomorrow from 9:00 am following the outbreak of a new strain of coronavirus to discontinue. “

British and Irish nationals, visa holders and permanent residents traveling from South Africa can enter but must self-isolate with their household for ten days.

“Visitors from South Africa are not allowed in to stop the spread of COVID-19.”

The UK has already put extensive Tier 4 lockdowns in place to contain the spread of a mutant strain of the virus that is up to 70% more transmissible, and more studies are ongoing.

South African doctors say their patients are younger and don’t always have other conditions that make the virus worse, but still have more severe forms of Covid-19.

South African Health Minister Zweli Mkhize said the new strain appeared to have spread faster, but it was too early to determine its severity and see if current vaccines would work against it.

“The evidence gathered therefore strongly suggests that the current second wave we are witnessing is being driven by this new variant,” added Mkhize.

The mutant strain was first observed in rising Covid-19 cases, which the country had only predicted over the winter in April next year.

Professor Tulio de Oliveira told CBS News that more and more cases had been discovered on the South African coast.

Prof. de Oliveira warned: “Maybe the virus will start to outsmart us.”

The number of new daily confirmed Covid-19 deaths per million people has skyrocketed in South Africa since the beginning of the month, while the number remains significantly higher in the UK

A large number of tests produce positive 7-day moving averages in both the UK and South Africa

The average daily COVID hospital admissions in the UK are 1,909 per day, Matt Hancock confirmed today. Last week’s numbers from South Africa showed that the numbers were increasing to around 500

Covid-19 infections and deaths are increasing in both South Africa and the UK. The UK today announced 39,237 cases and 744 deaths

Covid-19 cases are on the rise in all regions of South Africa as concerns arise about a new strain first discovered along its coast

In a series of tweets dubbed an ‘urgent update’, Secretary of Transportation Grant Shapps wrote, ‘I have decided to temporarily suspend flights and arrivals entering England from SOUTH AFRICA from SOUTH AFRICA tomorrow from 9:00 am following the outbreak of a new strain of coronavirus to discontinue. “

He added: “British and Irish nationals, visa holders and permanent residents traveling from South Africa may enter but must self-isolate with their household for ten days.”

Mr. Shapps concluded, “Visitors from South Africa are not allowed to enter to stop the spread of COVID-19

He added: “We are very concerned not only for South Africa but also for the rest of Africa.

“Our health system has been affected by the HIV and TB epidemics for 20 years, so we are rather concerned that, if Africa has escaped the first wave quite successfully, unless it steps up and tries to control this virus.” We may not be able to escape this second wave as successfully as we did the first. ‘

The mutation means the country may see “a lot more cases” in the new wave than it did when the disease first rose.

Young people have made headlines in South Africa for fueling the spread of the new strain with raves, and parents have been criticized for failing to keep their children under tighter control.

There has been a lot of coverage on social media about super spreader events like soccer tournaments, weddings, street parties, and pub sessions.

Mutations in viruses are to be expected – more than 4,000 different strains of coronavirus have been tracked – but genomics experts watch out for critical changes in spike proteins that can alter how people suffer from the disease.

“In the UK they also identified a new variant … there are some similarities between the two lines … there are also a similar number of mutations,” said Professor Tulio de Oliviera, a member of the Cape Town Genomics Consortium.

The two cases of the South African variant discovered in the UK were found in London and the northwest.

The fact that they were discovered through routine random sampling, selecting only about one in ten tests performed – and that they were believed to have been infected by different travelers – suggests that there are many more cases of the variant already in the UK .

The UK is a world leader in tracking changes in the virus, so it is likely that many more such mutants are already widespread.

The British mutant has already been found in samples from scientists in Denmark, the Netherlands and Australia.

With the UK variant, however, the scientists have expressed confidence that the mutation will not affect the vaccine’s effectiveness.

This is because when the body produces antibodies to a virus, it does so for large chunks of its genetic data, meaning that a more significant mutation would be required to defeat the vaccine.

UK Health Secretary Matt Hancock said: “This new variant is extremely worrying as it is even more transmissible and appears to have mutated further when the new variant was discovered in the UK.”

A mother holds her young child while they wait for food during a feeding program and are handing out food today in Coronationville, Johannesburg, South Africa, by the NGO Hunger Has No Religion

The World Health Organization (WHO) said Friday that it had contacted the South African researchers who had identified the new variant.

“We are working with them in our working group on the development of the SARS-CoV-2 virus,” said WHO epidemiologist Maria Van Kerkhove, using the full name for the virus.

“They are growing the virus in the country and working with researchers to see changes in the behavior of the virus itself in relation to transmission.”

Like Britain, South Africa has isolated itself through a series of travel bans following the discovery of the new tribe.

Aviation experts said they expected more airlines and countries to follow suit, at least until more was known.