Filenews 7 April 2021
Alarm has been sounded in the scientific community as scientists announced that a new coronae strain involving a total of 34 mutations has been identified. This variant of the virus was detected in three travellers in Angola in February.
The researchers, led by Tullio de Oliveira of KwaZulu-Natal University in Durban, South Africa, and Sylvia Lutukuta of the Angolan Health Ministry in Luanda, who made the relevant pre-publication on medRxix, according to Nature, discovered the variant after genetic analysis of samples from three people who were passengers on a flight from Tanzania to Angola in February this year.
34 mutations
The new variant, provisionally named A.VOI. V2, has 34 mutations, including 14 in the spike protein that the coronavirus uses to infect human cells.
The genomes of the coronavirus from all three travellers were almost identical, while several of the 34 mutations have been found in other already known variants.
Further study
This variant needs to be further studied, according to scientists, because its mutations probably help it escape the immune reactions of some people.
It is recalled that at the end of 2020 the South African Genomic Surveillance Network had - for the first time - detected the now more contagious 'South African' variant 501Y. V2, which is more resistant to antibodies and which has now spread to more than 50 countries.
Angola, where there have been about 21,500 confirmed cases and 500 deaths from Covid-19, has imposed mandatory rapid antigen tests on all air travellers arriving at its international airport, in addition to presenting negative molecular tests in the last 72 hours.
All those who have a positive rapid test on arrival in the country are isolated for at least 14 days, while those who have a negative rapid test, isolate themselves for 10 days.
Source: news.in.gr
