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Super-mutant 'vaccine resistant' Botswana Covid variant is driving South African surge and is nearing dominance just WEEKS after first being detected - sparking calls for a new travel ban on region to prevent outbreak here

 

Daily Mail

November 25, 2021

 

A new Covid variant feared to be ultra infectious and vaccine resistant is driving a Covid surge in South Africa and could become dominant in the country 'very quickly', scientists said today. 

Around 100 cases of B.1.1.529, its scientific name, have been detected so far in three countries after the first case was spotted in Botswana on November 11. The World Health Organization is convening an emergency meeting tomorrow to investigate the troubling strain. 

South Africa's Health minister Joe Phaahla today described the variant as a 'major threat', warning it was behind an exponential increase in cases across the country. 

And graphs presented at a hastily organised press conference showed that B.1.1.529 appears to be outcompeting Delta in Gauteng, the country's central province where its capital is based. 

Experts in the UK today called on ministers to 'get ahead' of the variant immediately and impose travel restrictions on the country. 

Zero-Covid scientist Professor Christina Pagel said restrictions were needed 'immediately'. And Chris Snowdon, an economist who has been in favour of easing restrictions, also called for an immediate travel ban. 

The red list was cleared of countries three weeks ago but the Government still has hundreds of hotel rooms on standby in case restrictions are changed. 

Professor Francois Balloux, a geneticist at University College London, said today that the variant could become dominant in the country 'very quickly'. But he said nothing was known about whether people who catch it are more likely to be hospitalised or die compared to those that catch the Delta variant.