A variant of COVID-19 first detected in South Africa could be more infectious than other mutations and may have the potential to be resistant to vaccines, according to a report.
The C.1.2 strain has been linked to “increased transmissibility” and is said to have mutated more than the original virus, which first emerged in the Chinese city of Wuhan, the Mirror reported.
The strain has a mutation rate of about 41.8 mutations per year, almost double the rate of global mutations seen in any other existing variant of concern or VOC, according to experts from the National Institute of Diseases Transmissibles from South Africa and the KwaZulu-Natal Research Innovation and Sequencing Platform.
The number of C.1.2 genomes in South Africa has risen from 0.2% in May to 1.6% in June and 2% in July, according to scientists, who have also found 14 mutations in almost 50 % of variants that had a C. 1.2 sequence.
Strain C.1.2 has also been found in the United Kingdom, China, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Mauritius, New Zealand, Portugal and Switzerland.
The latest South African variant could be able to evade antibodies and immune systems, the researchers said, noting that more research is needed.
“We describe and characterize a SARS-CoV-2 lineage recently identified with several peak mutations that is likely to have arisen in a major metropolitan area of South Africa after the first wave of the epidemic and to have spread to multiple locations within two the researchers wrote in the report, which was published in the journal Nature.
“We show that this lineage has expanded rapidly and become dominant in three provinces, at the same time as there has been a rapid resurgence of infections,” they added.
Scientists have discovered that B.1.351, another South African strain found in April, had the potential to “break” the Pfizer vaccine.
“We have found a disproportionately higher rate of the South African variant among people vaccinated with a second dose, compared to the unvaccinated group,” said Professor Adi Stern of Tel Aviv University in Israel, the Mirror. “This means that the South African variant is able, to some extent, to break down vaccine protection.”
But he still said the variant “has not spread widely among the population” and that the UK variant could “block” the spread of the South African strain.
News of strain C.1.2, which was discovered in May, comes as the United States faces a resurgence caused by the Delta variant, which has complicated efforts to return to jobs and schools.