What scared experts and will it rule UK?
Q Why are scientists so worried? A South African scientists sounded an alarm after noticing a surge in cases.
Its most populous Gauteng province, which includes Johannesburg and Pretoria, had a four-fold increase in Covid confirmed cases in just nine days in November.
Genetic sequencing confirmed that it was a new variant, named B.1.1.529.
PCR test analysis indicates as many as 80% of new cases in South Africa were the new variant. well would typically struggle to shake off the virus. Such a patient acts as an “evolutionary gym” and gives it more chances to make more mutations.
Q What is the Government doing? A Direct flights from the six southern African countries were postponed from midday yesterday and they were placed on the Red List.
British or Irish nationals wishing to enter the country after Sunday via any route will be required to go through hotel quarantine.
Q What are other countries doing? A France yesterday banned all flights from South Africa for a minimum of 48 hours.
Singapore also moved to restrict travel from South Africa and nearby nations, following Israel, which acted late on Thursday. Israel confirmed B.1.1.529 cases had been detected there, with the country “on the verge of a state of emergency”. US infectious disease leader Dr Anthony Fauci said his country will be restricting flights from southern Africa from Monday.
QA Q Why is it so dangerous?
A
B.1.1.529 has around 50 mutations and 32 are in the crucial spike protein which the virus uses to get into human cells. That is around double that seen in the Delta variant now dominant in the UK.
Some of the mutations have been seen before in other variants but not all together like this.
Jabs may be less effective against it but there is no indication yet whether B.1.1.529 triggers a more or less severe reaction.
Q Why has it emerged? A
Only around 11% of the African population have received even one dose of a Covid-19 vaccine so it was always likely a dangerous new variant would develop there.
Around one in four people are vaccinated in South Africa. The Omicron variant is so different to others that have come before it that scientists believe it may have emerged in an immunocompromised patient, possibly someone with HIV.
That is because someone with a immune system that is not working
Q Is it inevitable that the Omicron variant will take over in Britain? A
Not entirely. Confirmed cases are highly likely to be detected but there is still lots of uncertainty about how much more infectious the variant is.
It is also unknown what the impact of widespread vaccination will have on the variant. Modellers are now combing the South African data to see how much more quickly it is spreading to decide how worried we should be.