The coronavirus is currently spreading rapidly.
South Africa is also affected by rapid expansion.
A new variant of the virus has now been discovered there.
A new variant of the coronavirus has emerged.
Researchers discovered this in South Africa.
It is unclear whether it will affect future vaccinations.
Johannesburg - The
coronavirus *
is currently spreading rapidly in many countries around the world.
South Africa
is also particularly hard hit
.
According to Health Minister Zwelini Mkhize in a TV speech on Friday (December 18), there could be a certain reason for the rapid spread of the second corona wave in the country: In South Africa, a
new variant
was found in genetic tests of samples from different provinces
of the virus
discovered.
It is also noticeable that more
younger people were infected *
than before
during the second wave
, according to South African doctors.
They also suffered from a more severe course of the lung disease Covid-19.
Corona: New variant of the virus discovered - more younger people infected
The new
virus variant called 501.V2
was discovered by a
research team *
led by the South African Kwazulu-Natal Research Innovation and Sequencing Platform (KRISP).
The scientists also forwarded their research results to the
World Health Organization (WHO)
and the
British authorities
.
New virus variants were also recently discovered there and in Spain.
Several variants of the coronavirus have been found since the beginning of the pandemic.
According to the WHO, the already known mutations of the virus with regard to the path of infection or the severity of the disease have hardly or not at all behaved differently than the virus that was first identified.
Corona: New variant of the virus discovered - will it affect future vaccinations?
So far, it is unclear whether the appearance of the new variant will affect
future vaccinations
.
However, the previous strategies of the South African government should not be changed.
The government in South Africa
imposed
a nationwide
exit
restriction
in late March to
contain the spread of the virus and tightened it again slightly after a temporary withdrawal at the start of the holiday season.
The restrictions are having a devastating effect on the country's economy.
South Africa is one of the countries in Africa hardest hit by the corona pandemic.
By Friday, more than 900,000 people in the country with its almost 60 million inhabitants were infected with the virus and more than 24,000 died.
(
jbr / dpa
) * Merkur.de is part of the Ippen-Digital editorial network
