#15,651
On the heels of the report earlier today from Hong Kong: CHP Investigating 2 Suspected UK Variant COVID Infections, we now have a report that the UK has detected the South African COVID variant (501Y.V2) - which is also believed to be more transmissible than the old strains - for the first time.
It was only yesterday (see PrePrint: Emergence & Rapid Spread of a New SARS-CoV-2 Lineage with Multiple Spike Mutations in South Africa) that we looked at the first characterization of this variant.
While this South African variant shares some of the mutations with the UK variant, they have significant differences, and appear to have arisen independent of one another. There has been speculation that this 501Y.V2 variant might be even more problematic than the UK variant, but data at this time is very limited.
Matt Hancock made the announcement in a press conference this morning, but I've not found an official announcement on the UK Govt website. While we await further details we have three media reports (1-BBC and 2- Sky News).
UK has two cases of variant found in South Africa
By James Gallagher
Health and science correspondent
COVID-19: Second variant found in two COVID cases in UK is 'highly concerning'
The new variant is "very different" to a fresh strain found in the UK, but both appear to be more transmissible, an expert says.
Flights from South Africa stopped over concerns of a new variant
The problem is, as always, that by the time a new variant has been detected by surveillance, and then linked to an increased risk to the public, it already has had weeks of a head start. If it is biologically `fit', and can compete against other strains, it will almost certainly have spread widely by that time.
Just as the UK variant has now been found in more than a half dozen other countries, we are likely to discover the South African variant has already begun its world tour as well.
Meaning we should expect similar reports, from more countries, in the days and weeks ahead.
