New Covid-19 variant from India, B.1.617.2 detected in South Africa

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The call for the government to impose travel ban from and to India intensifies following a discovery of a new Covid-19 variant which made its way into the country through a cargo ship a week ago.

This was confirmed by National Institute of Communicable Diseases (NICD) through a statement where they confirmed that the variant was found in four people.

“The National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD), a division of the National Health Laboratory Service, have sequenced COVID-19 specimens from individuals with a recent travel history to India. The institute can confirm that four of the specimens tested positive for B.1.617.2 (two cases from Gauteng and two from KwaZulu-Natal).”

“The B.1.617.2 variant is currently highlighted as a variant of interest by the World Health Organization and is one of multiple variants circulating in India. All cases have been isolated and managed according to COVID-19 case management guidelines and contact tracing has been performed in order to limit the spread of this variant.”

The institute also added that another variant that is currently dominating COVID-19 infections in Europe and North America, B.1.1.7 has also been detected in South Africa.

They said that they have recorded eight cases in the Western Cape, two cases in Gauteng and one case in KwaZulu-Natal of the variant.