The highly infectious Delta variant continued being the “dominant variant” in South Africa and the driver of the third wave, as the newly detected C.1.2 variant was present at very low levels, scientists said.
“The Delta variant was still the most dominant variant with the new variant C.1.2 being detected at low frequency,” said Dr. Jinal Bhiman, Principal Medical Scientist at National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) at a news conference on Monday night, the Xinhua news agency reported.
The new C.1.2 variant was detected in May and has been detected in all nine provinces at less than 3 percent frequency. However, scientists said it was still being “assessed” at various laboratories. “It has been increasing in frequency but it remains low in frequency,” Bhiman said.
It contains many mutations associated with other variants with increased transmissibility and reduced sensitivity to neutralizing antibodies, but they occur in a different mix and scientists are not yet sure how they affect the behavior of the virus. Laboratory tests are underway to establish how well the variant is neutralized by antibodies.
South Africa was the first country to detect the Beta variant, one of only four labelled “of concern” by the World Health Organization (WHO).
Beta is believed to spread more easily than the original version of the coronavirus that causes COVID-19, and there is evidence vaccines work less well against it, leading some countries to restrict travel to and from South Africa.
NICD’s acting executive director Prof Adrian Puren said that the vaccines being rolled out in South Africa would protect people against the variant even though more research was still being conducted.
“The intention is not to create any panic,” he said, adding that “our vaccines are potent and effective in terms of preventing severe diseases and deaths.”
The scientists said the new variant could only be classified once it has been named a variant of interest.