#15,706
While the COVID B.1.1.7 variant (first announced in the UK) appears to have a major head start on its world tour over other emerging COVID competitors, the 501Y.V2 variant first identified in South Africa seems to be running a close second with detections now in at least a dozen countries.
Highly transmissible, the 501Y.V2 contains the E484K mutation, which early studies have suggested may result in reduced antibody recognition - which may make it less susceptible to certain antibody therapies.
How problematic that might be - and whether 501Y.V2 can compete with B.1.1.7 on the world stage - are unknown, but researchers and most nations are taking its spread seriously (see CCDC Weekly: COVID-19 Variant 501Y.V2 Detected in Airplane Pilot — Guangdong Province, Jan 6th 2021).
Testing for these variants is quite limited and time consuming, and so we don't have a good handle on how widespread they might be. But today, Taiwan announced their first detection, in a traveler from Eswatini (formerly Swaziland), who had previously been diagnosed with COVID on January 1st.
This traveler reportedly arrived in Taiwan on the 24th of December, and had submitted proof of a negative COVID test within 72 hour of his departure. He was still in quarantine when he become symptomatic 6 days later. On January 12th, he was identified as carrying the 501Y.V2 variant.
Since the English language report from Taiwan's CDC only discusses the new quarantine measures, and doesn't provide the details of this first case, I've translated the Chinese language report.
Release Date: 2021-01-13
The Central Epidemic Command Centre announced that from 0:00 on 14 January 2021 (arrival time), visitors with a travel history of the Republic of South Africa or the Kingdom of Swadini (including local transfers) within 14 days will enter the country on a case-by-case date compared to those entering the United Kingdom or within 14 days.
After all stay in centralized quarantine and inspection, and before the end of quarantine inspection, the test results negative, return home to complete 7 days of independent health management, passengers do not have to pay centralized quarantine site fees, please honestly declare the health status and travel history within 14 days, to ensure their own health and jointly maintain domestic epidemic prevention and safety.
According to the command center, the case of 813 Swadini in China was confirmed by the laboratory on 12 January as an infected person with a variant of the virus strain in South Africa (a cumulative total of 38 strains have been sequenced since October 2020; of which 5 are british variants and 1 is a variant of South Africa).
Due to the close traffic between the Kingdom of Swadini and the Republic of South Africa, and the severity of the recent COVID-19 outbreak in the Republic of South Africa, the country has so far confirmed a cumulative total of 1,259,748 cases (22,014 cases/million people), 34,334 deaths (600 cases/million people), an average of more than 17,021 new cases per day in the past two weeks, accounting for 70 per cent of the total number of deaths in Africa.
In addition, to date, at least 12 countries around the world have reported the detection of infected people infected with the South African variant strain of the virus, WHO estimated that the transmission capacity of the variant strain is about 1.5 times compared to the non-variant strain, but the current information is limited, its impact on transmission risk, test diagnosis, clinical symptoms and vaccines has yet to be confirmed.
For a slightly less daunting read, Taiwan News has the following English Language report.
Taiwan reports first case of mutant South African Covid strain
Eswatini becomes first person in Taiwan to test positive for South African coronavirus variant
A reminder that a negative COVID test within 72-hours of departure - while useful - is no guarantee that a traveler isn't infected, since the incubation period of the virus can be a week or more.
