World Health Organization meets as new COVID-19 variant B. 1. 1. 529 with LARGE number of mutations is detected in South Africa and found in Botswana and Hong Kong

The World Health Organization (WHO) will be meeting in Geneva, Switzerland, on Friday, to decide whether it should give a name to a new COVID-19 variant with a large number of mutations detected in South Africa.

The WHO COVID-19 technical lead, Maria Van Kerkhove, said the new variant, currently identified as B. 1. 1. 529, is a source of concern because “when you have so many mutations, it can have an impact on how the virus behaves.”

South Africa’s health minister Dr. Joe Phaahla announced on Thursday that the new variant has a high number of mutations and rapid spread among young people in Gauteng, the country’s most populous province.

Dr. Phaahla said in a statement that the new variant seems to be driving the spike in cases in South Africa in the past four to five days.

“Over the last four or five days, there has been more of an exponential rise,” added Sr. Phaahla, who was appointed as minister of health on August 5, 2021, having served as deputy minister of health in South Africa from May 30, 2019, to August 5, 2021.

The new variant has also been found in Botswana and Hong Kong in travelers from South Africa and there are worries that many more people may have it without knowing.

The WHO COVID-19 technical lead Maria Van Kerkhove said researchers are getting together to understand where the mutations are and what that potentially may mean for diagnostics, therapeutics and vaccines.

“It’s good that they are being detected. It means we have a system in place. It will take a few weeks for us to understand what impact this variant has,” she said. “There is a lot of work that is underway. It’s a variant that is under monitoring.”

The WHO expert added in her video message to raise awareness about the new variant, “The TAG VE will discuss if it will become a variant of interest or variants of concern, and if that’s the case, then we’ll give it a Greek name, but it’s something to watch. Everybody who is out there needs to understand that the more this virus circulates, the more opportunities the virus has to change, the more mutations we will see. Every single one of you watching as a role to play in driving transmission down, as well as protecting yourself against severe disease and death.”

She urged everyone to get vaccinated against COVID-19. “Make sure you receive the full course of your doses and make sure you reduce your exposure and prevent yourself from passing out that virus to someone else.”

Dr. Van Kerkhove has repeatedly explained over the past one year that the coronavirus has been evolving as it spreads many new variants die out. But some others, like the Delta variant, which has a large number of mutations and was also detected in South Africa, cane become deadlier.

It is not yet clear whether the new variant will become the new Delta variant or even deadlier than it.

In a statement, the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warned against the newly detected variant in South Africa.

“On 25 November 2021, the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) in South Africa announced the detection of a new variant of the SARS-COV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, following genomic sequencing. This variant is currently labelled as lineage B.1.1.529,” Africa CDC wrote. “The emergence of this new variant coincides with a sudden increase in cases in the Gauteng province over recent days and is accordingly being closely monitored by the health authorities in South Africa.”

Below are Details of the new B.1.1.529 variant provided by Africa CDC

• By 25th November 2021, the B.1.1.529 variant had been detected in 77 samples collected between 12-20 November from Gauteng province in South Africa, 4 samples from Botswana and 1 sample in Hong Kong.
• The B.1.1.529 variant displays multiple mutations across the virus genome, including more than 30 in the region which encodes the spike protein responsible for virus entry into host cells.
• Some of the mutations have been detected in previous variants, such as Alpha and Delta, and have been associated with increased transmissibility and immune evasion.
• Many of the other identified mutations are not yet well characterized and have not been identified in other currently circulating variants. 
• More investigations are underway to determine the possible impact of these mutations on the capacity of the virus to transmit more efficiently, to impact vaccine effectiveness and evade immune response,  and/or to cause more severe or milder disease.

Recommendations to AU Member States and health authorities

1. Africa CDC strongly recommends the implementation of public health and social measures (PHSM), including mask wearing, physical distancing and hand washing, as crucial to limit the transmission of COVID-19 regardless of the emergence of new COVID-19 variants.
2. Africa CDC strongly discourages the imposition of travel ban for people originating from countries that have reported this variant. In fact, over the duration of this pandemic, we have observed that imposing bans on travelers from countries where a new variant is reported has not yielded a meaningful outcome. Rather implementing PHSM should be prioritized.
3. COVID-19 vaccines remain a key tool to prevent severe cases and deaths from COVID-19 infection.
4. National health authorities should reinforce PHSM implementation and accelerate immunization of their populations, prioritizing high risk groups, ahead of upcoming new waves of COVID-19 infections. 
5. Public health laboratories and researchers should closely monitor the rate of S gene drop out results.  Timely genomic surveillance should be reinforced through coordination with national and regional pathogen genomics laboratories.  The Africa CDC, through the Africa Pathogen Genomics Initiative, will support this coordination at the continental level.
6. Member States should notify Africa CDC immediately if they identify any new SARS-CoV-2 variant.

Africa CDC will continue to monitor the situation and provide further guidance to Member States and the public as more information becomes available about the B.1.1.529 variant.