According to Matt Hancock, Secretary of State for Health and Social Affairs, a new "highly concerning" variant of the coronavirus has been detected in the UK that is suspected to fuel an increase in cases in South Africa.
The announcement was made Wednesday at the Downing Street press conference heralding the introduction of new quarantine rules for recent visitors from South Africa.
"This new variant is very worrying because it is even more transmissible and appears to have changed further than the new variant discovered in the UK.“Said Hancock. The South African variant of Covid-19 could be "more effective in diffusion' "
Britain, which has recorded a record of nearly 40.000 new positive cases and 744 deaths, is preparing to raise the level of containment of the virus. From December 26, in fact, other areas of the country, including Sussex, Oxfordshire, Suffolk, Norfolk and Cambridgeshire will move to level 4 containment.
For now, even in South Africa, the mutation no longer seems lethal, nor is it in a position to undermine the efficacy of approved vaccines. It is certainly a warning to undertake every effort to eradicate the coronavirus with a widespread vaccination campaign. It is a virus that mutates relatively little, but since it is pandemic, the small variations multiply and not only in humans, since SARS-CoV-2 can also infect mammals (as seen in the case of minks) and return to man in different forms.