The C.1.2 strain may have “increased transmissibility’ and ‘could be more infectious’ than its predecessors.
Having been discovered in South Africa, this variant has also recently been detected in South Africa and England.
In their report published in the Nature journal, the scientists say: “We describe and characterize a newly identified SARS-CoV2 lineage with several spike mutations that are likely to have emerged in a major metropolitan area in South Africa after the first wave of the epidemic, and then to have spread to multiple locations within two neighboring provinces.
This new strain has a mutation rate of about 41.8 mutations per year, which is double the current global mutation rate out of other variants. Scientists warned that these characteristics could allow the variant to evade antibodies and immune responses.
A report published by the Public Health Department of England earlier this month said that the C.1.2 strain was among the variants being monitored by the UK.
Earlier this April, another strain was discovered to have the potential to evade the Pfizer vaccine. An examination was conducted on 400 people who had two doses of the vaccine, and 400 people who tested positive who were not jabbed by any vaccine.
The experiment showed that the variant was eight times more prevalent on the vaccinated individuals, with 5.4 percent over 0.7 percent on those without.
This variant was called the B. 1. 621, which was thought to have originated in Colombia.
However, experts at Public Health England say there was no evidence that this was deadlier than the Delta variant, which reportedly causes around 99 percent of all the cases in the UK.
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However, researchers still plead to the public to get vaccinated as soon as possible. “Getting fully vaccinated is crucial for reducing an individual’s risk of symptomatic infection,” Dr. Anne Presanis of Cambridge University says.
“(Vaccines) also reduce a Delta patient’s risk of severe illness and hospital admission.”
The resurgence of new variants is concerning especially when the most threatening COVID variant so far– the Delta variant– has been linked to the faster transmission and has been linked to millions of deaths and hospitalizations worldwide.
Last year, around 2,000 new positive cases are recorded in Britain each day. As of the moment, Britain is recently recording around 30,000 COVID-19 cases per day, which had the possibility of increasing as schools reopen next week.