WHO says no sign South African Covid-19 variant more contagious than UK version

The World Health Organisation has said that there is no evidence so far that shows COVID-19 variant seen in South Africa is more contagious than the one in United Kingdom.

Both UK and South Africa have detected new variants of the Covid-19 causing virus in recent weeks that led to sudden surge in cases.

World Health Organisation’s technical chief on Covid-19, Maria Van Kerkhove, said on Tuesday that there is no indication that the coronavirus variant identified in South Africa is more transmissible than the one spreading fast in Britain, Reuters reports.

Earlier UK scientists had earlier expressed concern that COVID-19 vaccines being rolled out in Britain may not be able to protect against a new variant of the coronavirus that emerged in South Africa.

British Health Secretary Matt Hancock also said he was very worried about the variant identified in South Africa.

Simon Clarke, an associate professor in cellular microbiology at the University of Reading, said that while both variants had some new features in common, the one found in South Africa “has a number additional mutations … which are concerning”.

He said these included more extensive alterations to a key part of the virus known as the spike protein – which the virus uses to infect human cells – and “may make the virus less susceptible to the immune response triggered by the vaccines”.

Scientists say both the South African and UK variants are associated with a higher viral load, meaning a greater concentration of virus particles in patients’ bodies, possibly contributing to increased transmission.