There's a new variant of the coronavirus (Covid19) and there's a lot of concern about it. I'm here to tell you about the B11529 variant, which has been detected in South Africa. So World Health Organization has announced B11529 as a variant of concern, named "Omicron".
Once a variant is classified as a variant of concern it's really important that we have good Cyrus Kobe to surveillance around the world, including better genomic sequencing. because we want to be able to detect this variant where it is circulating. With many mutations, this new variant has been called horrific by one scientist, another described it as a jump in evolution. So although it's early days what do we know about the B11529 variant? how transmissible is it? and more importantly how effective are our vaccines against? here are
Things you must know about a new variant of covid19 Omnicron B11529
The reason scientists are on alert of the Omnicron B11529 variant is that it's heavily mutated. Now it's normal for a virus to mutate and not all mutations are necessarily bad news but this particular variant has 50 mutations overall and over 30 mutations just on the spike protein this pipe routine is basically what helps the virus enter our body cells. Instantly the spike protein is also the part of the virus that most vaccines target. So that is another reason why scientists are worried. It's still unclear how effective our vaccines are against the B1159 variant. Most of the vaccines that are available in the world today are based on the original strain of the coronavirus. Which emerged from Wuhan in China, but given that this particular variant has over 30 mutations on the spike protein alone. This means that it can potentially have an impact on the efficacy of our vaccines. You may want to know
How lethal is this variant
The thing is we don't know just yet whether this causes more severe disease in people. Scientists say that this new variant has at least one mutation that allows it to spread faster among people. Remember the delta variant which was responsible for India's second wave? now the delta variant was at least two times more contagious than previous variants. How much more transmissible this variant is is something that scientists will be closely studying.
How widespread is this variant in the world today?
For now, It appears to be largely contained to one province in South Africa. They've also been cases reported from Botswana and hong kong as well. Travel of course was the first to be hit after news of this new variant came out India reacted by directing states to screen passengers coming from countries that are reporting this new variant. the UK, Germany, Singapore, and many other countries are prohibiting or strictly restricting flights from South Africa and other African states.
While scientists around the world try to make sense of this new variant. Remember you will have to do your bit to wear your mask, maintain physical distance and follow other Kobe 19 protocols. We'll bring you more updates on this new variant stay safe.
