Recently filled graves in the Olifantsveil Cemetery outside Johannesburg, South Africa, on August 5. Photo / AP
Recently filled graves in the Olifantsveil Cemetery outside Johannesburg, South Africa, on August 5. Photo / AP
A new variant of the Covid-19 virus is driving a massive resurgence of the disease in South Africa, with experts warning the country is probably facing a much larger second wave.
Over the summer, the pandemic hit South Africa harder than any nation in Africa. Hospitals were overwhelmed and, at its peak, the authorities were recording more than 13,000 new cases a day.
Now a new variant of the virus — known as 501.V2 — is driving a powerful second wave, making up about 80 to 90 per cent of new cases in Africa's most industrialised nation.
The strain is different from Britain's but is similar in the sense it is spreading far more rapidly than the original virus.
"Its still very early, but at this stage the preliminary data suggest that the virus that is now dominating in the second wave is spreading faster than the first wave," said Professor Salim Abdool Karim, chairman of the government's Ministerial Advisory Committee on Covid-19.
People affected by the coronavirus economic downturn line up to receive food donations at the Iterileng informal settlement near Laudium, southwest of Pretoria, on May 20. Photo / AP
South Africa may see "many more cases" in the new wave than it experienced in the first surge of the disease, warned Karim, adding that when nasal swabs were taken from patients with the new variant, far more viral load was being found in the samples.
"I will just speculate the following: the ... higher viral load in these swabs may translate into a higher efficiency of transmission," he said.
The new South African variant has been traced to Nelson Mandela Bay in the Eastern Cape, which was the first major urban area to be hit by the country's second wave.
South Africa has recorded about 950,000 cases of the virus since the pandemic began and some 25,000 deaths. Now the rainbow nation, weary and battered from lockdowns, is seeing about 10,000 new cases a day.
It "strongly suggests" the current wave of cases is being driven by the new variant, South Africa's health minister, Dr Zweli Mkhize, warned on Friday.
Mkhize criticised young partygoers and called on parents, caregivers and young people "to understand that this is now not just a matter of thinking about others, but you yourselves are now equally at risk of dying from Covid-19".
Volunteers wait to be checked at a vaccine trial facility for AstraZeneca at Soweto's Chris Sani Baragwanath Hospital outside Johannesburg on November 30. Photo / AP
Mkhize said that clinicians had been providing "anecdotal evidence" that a "larger proportion of younger patients with no co-morbidities presenting with critical illness".
However, other experts say it is too early to tell if the new strain was more deadly. Karim said it was not yet clear if the new variant is causing more deaths.
"We don't yet have enough data on this to ascertain if the new strain could be more infectious for children and young adults," Dr John Nkengasong, director of the Africa Centre for Disease Control and Prevention in Addis Ababa, told the Telegraph.
Germany, Switzerland, Israel, Sudan, Mauritius, Turkey and El Salvador have banned incoming flights from South Africa.
